Borderlands
(Chris Caswell and Danny Carnahan)
The young man sat above the town in the glow of a setting sun
With his head held cradled in his hands, his back against a stone
Saying "Why have I so little time in this wretched place to stand?"
When I can't take the girl I love back home to the borderland"
For I watch her dance upon the hill, and I live but for her song
That she never dreamed I waited here, so silent and so long
But her golden hair does strike me dumb, and her brown eyes
strike me blind.
And the thought I'll ne'er see her again is torture in my mind.
The maid walked down the hill near by, toward home in the end of day
And she caught the sound of the young man's words, and she
stopped upon her way
And no voice had she ever heard so sweet, as the voice of the stranger lad
And she stood there as if turned to stone, and listened from the shadow.
The young man's words reached out to her, where she stood upon the lea,
And they built her ships upon the clouds and castles on the sea
And as he spoke, her eyes did flash and burn as with a flame,
And the maid stepped out around the stone, as if he called her name.
"Pray lament no more," she said, her voice like the gentle sea.
"For I have heard your every word, and I know they're meant for me.
And if you speak in truth my lad, and you love me as you say,
There can be no reason we must part, not even for a day."
The young man started at her words, and he stood up straight and tall
Said "I never meant for you to hear me speak this way at all.
For you can never have me, love, it's useless to deceive,
For I must return to the borderland, oh I am bound to leave you."
"I care not where you're bound my lad, I care not where you're from.
For the one thing that I'm certain tis this maiden's heart you've won.
So take me with you where you must, I freely go your way.
And I will lie here in your arms to greet the l
Tenderly he laid her down, and next to her did lie.
The wind that whispered through the trees was sweet as a lullaby.
And bending down, he folded her into a soft embrace
With a touch he sent her fast asleep with a smile upon her face.
"Sleep content, my love," he said, "I can not cause you pain.
For the dawn will find me far away, and won't be back again.
And though I'd take you if I could, I am not what I seem.
So forget we ever tarried here, and wake as from a dream."
"For I am not of your world, my love, I come from another time,
And I crossed here from the borderlands between your world and mine.
It was there that I first heard your voice and longed for your
face to see.
And I gathered all the powers I had and stepped out on your lea."
"And you know I watched you quietly as you danced upon the hill.
And though I dared not call to you, I loved you stronger still.
But no longer do I have the power, no longer can I stay.
And I'll be pulled back into my time by the dawning of the day."
"But I will be your pillow, where e'er your head will lie
And I'll be the star you can only catch in the corner of your eye.
And I'll be the sound of laughter in the first low flower of dawn.
And I'll be the touch to brush your cheek, and wake you in the morning."
Saying this, he bended low, and he kissed her once goodbye
And as as the dawn broke on the hill, he vanished like a sigh.
And the maid she opened up her eyes and smiled up through the trees
For as she listened, she could almost hear his voice upon the breeze.
"I know you hear me, love." she spoke as she lay on her grassy bed.
"For I felt your touch and I felt your kiss, and I heard the words
you said.
But the next time that our worlds combine, cannot be very far,
And I'll be waiting then to take your hand and dance among the stars."
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Written by Chris Caswell and Danny Carnahan, and recorded on
"Borderlands," Kicking Mule Records, KMC-316, Copyright 1982.
DC
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!