The Queen And The Soldier Lyrics

 Suzanne Vega
 
 The soldier came knocking upon the queen's door
 He said, "I am not fighting for you any more"
 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."
 
 Down in the long narrow hall he was led
 Into her rooms 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?"
 
 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.
 
 Andshe said, "I've swallowed a secret burning thread
 It cuts me inside, and often I've bled"
 He laid his hand then on top of her head
 And he bowed her down to the ground.
 
 "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
 She took him to the doorstep and she as
She would only be a moment inside.
 
 Out in the distance her order was heard
 And the soldier was killed, still waiting for her word
 And while the queen went on strangeling in the solitude she preferred
 The battle continued on