Samarkand Lyrics

I saw you outside the grand bazaar of Samarkand like an empress in the street

I thought, "God willing, what I wouldn't give to be her cup of tea"

You were in the shade of a cherry tree with a plate of apricots

With your dark hair in a silken veil and your dark eyes lost in thought

Well, I set down my cart full of jade and lapis from the East

Couldn't stop myself from giving you the finest one for free

Now, all the jade in China couldn't make you be my wife

But the smile that you gave me... that was enough for one life

You were a lady-in-waiting in Tokugawa Ieyasu's court

I was a captain of the Shogun's guard, living by the sword

On the field at Sekigahara, my foes never had a chance

But you, my dear, could cut me down with just one fleeting glance

In the garden of the castle, when the blossoms began to fall

You wrote poetry of love and loss while I patrolled the walls

Well, that day I caught your eye, and you took me to your bed

We slept straight through my second watch and the Shogun took my head

I was the oldest son of a king and you were the daughter of a chief

More for politics than love, those old men promised you to me

But for fifteen lucky years, we ruled the rocky Connaught shore

Until one cold winter's night, when a fever took its toll

They buried me in the Burren, beneath a stack of sacred stones

And one by one, the druids and the mourners left for home

But you, my love, lingered on as the torchlight flickered dim

Until there was only you and me, the way it's always been

The way it's always been