The Beggar Man Lyrics

The harlot sang to the beggar-man

I meet them face to face

Conall, Cuchulain, Usna's boys

All that most ancient race

Maeve had three in an hour, they say

I adore those clever eyes

Those muscular bodies, but can get

No grip upon their thighs

Na nana na nana na

Nana na nana daday

Na nana na nana na

Nana na nana

I meet those long pale faces

Hear their great horses, then

Recall what centuries have passed

Since they were living men

That there are still some living

That do my limbs unclothe

But that the flesh my flesh has gripped

I both adore and loathe. Ho-i

Ay didly ay dil dy

Didle ay dil dy – again

Ay didly ay dil dy

Didle ay dil dy

Are those things that men adore and loathe

Their sole reality?

Who stood in the Post office

With Pearse and Connolly?

What comes out of the mountain

Where men first shed their blood?

Who thought Cuchulain till it seemed

He stood where they had stood?

Ay didly ay dil dy

Didle ay dil dy – again

Ay didly ay dil dy

Didle ay dil dy

Nobody like his body

Has modern woman borne

But an old man looking back on life

Imagines it in scorn

A statue's there to mark the place

By Oliver Sheppard done

So ends the tale that the harlot

Sang to the beggar-man

Ah dah dah dadah dah dah

Dadah dah da dah! Again

Ah dah dah dadah dah dah

Dadah dah da dah

One more time

Ah dah dah dadah dah dah

Dadah dah da dah

Ta dah

Ah dah dah dadah dah dah

Ah fuckit finish there