The Queen and the Soldier-Suzanne Vega

[00:09.27]The soldier came knocking upon the queen's door [00:41.28]He said, "I am not fighting for you any more" [00:46.41]And the queen knew she'd seen his face someplace before [00:51.33]And slowly she let him inside [00:55.95]He said, "I've watched your palace up here on the hill [01:01.47]And I've wondered who's the woman for whom we all kill [01:05.64]But I am leaving tomorrow and you can do what you will [01:10.68]Only first I am asking you why" [01:16.65]Down the long narrow hall he was led [01:19.86]Into her rooms with her tapestries red [01:25.74]And she never once took the crown from her head [01:30.72]She asked him there to sit down [01:37.86]He said, "I see you now and you are so very young [01:42.63]But I've seen more battles lost than I have battles won [01:47.73]And I've got this intuition, says it's all for your fun [01:52.83]And now will you tell me why?" [01:57.48]Well, the young queen, she fixed him with an arrogant eye [02:02.04]She said, "You won't understand and you may as well not try" [02:07.29]But her face was a child's and he thought she would cry [02:12.27]But she closed herself up like a fan [02:18.42]And she said, "I've swallowed a secret burning thread [02:22.71]It cuts me inside and often I've bled" [02:28.02]And he laid his hand then on top of her head [02:32.88]And he bowed her down to the ground [02:51.09]"And tell me how hungry are you? How weak you must feel [03:02.49]As you are living here alone and you are never revealed [03:07.11]But I won't march again on your battlefield" [03:12.09]And he took her to the window to see [03:17.04]And the sun, it was gold though the sky, it was gray [03:25.29]And she wanted more than she ever could say [03:27.03]But she knew how it frightened her and she turned away [03:32.10]And would not look at his face again [03:36.93]And he said, "I want to live as an honest man [03:42.18]To get all I deserve and to give all I can [03:47.22]And to love a young woman who I don't understand [03:51.99]Your highness, your ways are very strange" [03:59.52]But the crown, it had fallen and she thought she would break [04:04.44]And she stood there ashamed of the way her heart ached [04:09.48]And she took him to the doorstep and she asked him to wait [04:14.31]She would only be a moment inside [04:17.88]Out in the distance her order was heard [04:24.36]And the soldier was killed, still waiting for her word [04:29.19]And while the queen went on strangling [04:31.98]In the solitude she preferred, the battle continued on