The Queen & The Soldier

(Album: Suzanne Vega - 1985)

The soldier came knocking upon the queen's door
He said, "I am not fighting for you any more"
And the queen knew she'd seen his face someplace before
And slowly she let him inside

He said, "I've watched your palace up here on the hill
And I've wondered who's the woman for whom we all kill
But I am leaving tomorrow and you can do what you will
Only first I am asking you why"

And down the long narrow hall he was led
Into her room with her tapestries red
And she never once took the crown from her head
She asked him there to sit down

He said, "I see you now, and you are so very young
But I've seen more battles lost than I have battles won
And I've got this intuition says it's all for your fun
And now will you tell me why?"

Well the young queen, she fixed him with an arrogant eye
She said, "You won't understand, and you may as well not try"
But her face was a child's and he thought she would cry
But she closed herself up like a fan

And she said, "I have swallowed a secret burning thread
It cuts me inside and often I've bled"
And he laid his hand then on top of her head
And he bowed her down to the ground

"And tell me how hungry are you? How weak you must feel
As you are living here alone and you are never revealed
But I won't march again on your battlefield"
And he took her to the window to see

And the sun, it was gold, though the sky, it was gray
And she wanted more than she ever could say
But she knew how it frightened her and she turned away
And would not look at his face again

And he said, "I want to live as an honest man
To get all I deserve and to give all I can
And to love a young woman who I don't understand
Your highness, your ways are very strange"

But the crown, it had fallen, and she thought she would break
And she stood there ashamed of the way her heart ached
And she took him to the doorstep and she asked him to wait
She would only be a moment inside

And out in the distance her order was heard
And the soldier was killed still waiting for her word
And while the queen went on strangling in the solitude she preferred
The battle continued on
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