When I was a little girl
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Younger than nine or ten
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I once spoke to the Silver Lady
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But I never saw her again.
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To me she flew out of the sky
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She was born riding on the water
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Her hair blew all around her
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She was the crazy man's only daughter.
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I used to see her every day
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Riding her golden pony
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Only once did I hear her laugh
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And it echoed far and lonely.
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Once I watched the river run
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And I wandered too far from home
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There I met the Silver Lady
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She was crying, all alone.
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I said, "Lady, why are you crying?
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If I had wings like you
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I would be flying over this river
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And singing like only birds do."
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Well she threw back her head and she smiled at me
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Her tears, how they shone in the sun
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She said, "I have no wings to fly with
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If I did I would surely be gone.
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"My brothers have all gone far away
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To follow their hearts and be free
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But I am the youngest and my father is ageing
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And all he's got left is me.
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"I love my father dearly
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Madman though he may be
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It would break his heart if I should leave him
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But this life is killing me.
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"I feel the ocean pulling me
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The breezes come and tell me things
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I want to go with them wherever they go
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And see what the new morning brings."
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So she sadly turned away from me
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So I stumbled my way back home
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The next day I heard she had taken her horse
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And gone off to parts unknown.
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Her father stayed inside his lonely house
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And he never more came into town
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He could be seen roaming the riverside
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And they say that he jumped in and drowned.
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Long though I waited, she never returned
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But when I felt a silver breeze
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I knew she had sent it from wherever she was
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To tell us that now she was free.
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The Silver Lady
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| Suzanne Vega |
