1.Prelude
2.The Hazards Of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won't Wrestle The
Thistles Undone)
My true love went riding out in white and green and grey
Past the pale of Offa's Wall where she was wont to stray
And there she came upon a white and wounded fawn
Singing oh, the hazards of love
She being full of charity, a credit to her sex
Sought to right the fawn's hind legs
When here her plans were vexed
The Taiga shifted strange
The beast began to change
Singing oh, the hazards of love
Singing oh, the hazards of love
You'll learn soon enough
The prettiest whistles won't wrestle the thistles undone
Undone
Fifteen lithesome maidens lay
Along in their bower
Fourteen occupations paid
To pass the idle hour
But Margaret heaves a sigh
Her hands clapsed to her thigh
Singing oh, the hazards of love
Singing oh, the hazards of love
You'll learn soon enough
The prettiest whistles won't wrestle the thistles undone
Undone
Undone
Undone
Undone
3.A Bower Scene
'Thou unconsolable daughter,' said the sister
'When will thou trouble the water in the cistern？
And what irascible blackguard is a father？'
And when young Margaret's waistline grew wider
The fruit of her amorous entwine inside her
And so our heroine withdraws to the Taiga
4.Won't Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)
Gentle leaves, gentle leaves
Please array a path for me
The wood's all growing thick and fast around
Columbine, Columbine
Please alert this love of mine
Let him know his Margaret comes along
And all this stirring inside my belly won't quell my want for
love
And I may swoon from all this swelling but I won't want for love
Mistle thrush, mistle thrush
Lay me down in the underbrush
My naked feet grow weary with the dusk
Willow boughs, willow boughs
Make a bed to lay me down
Let your branches bow to cradle us
And all this stirring inside my belly won't quell my want for
love
And I may swoon from all this swelling but I won't want for love
Oh my own true love,
Oh my own true love,
Can you hear me love？
Can you hear me love？
And all this stirring inside my belly won't quell my want for
love
And I may swoon from all this swelling but I won't want for love
Won't want for love
Won't want for love
I won't want for love
5.The Hazards Of Love 2 (Wager All)
And here I am, softer than a shower
And here I am, to garland you with flowers
To lay you down in a clover bed
The stars a roof above our heads
And all my life I've never felt the tremor
And all my life, that now disturbs my fingers
I'll lay you down in a clover bed
The stars, a roof above our heads
And we'll lie until the Corn Crake crows
Bereft of the weight of our summer clothes
And I'd wager all
The hazards of love
The hazards of love
And take my hand and cradle it in your hand
And take my hand, feel the pull, the quicksand
I'll lay you down in a clover bed
The stars, a roof above our heads
And we'll lie until the Corn Crake crows
Bereft of the weight of our summer clothes
And I'd wager all
The hazards of love
The hazards of love
The hazards of love
The hazards of love
6.The Queen's Approach
7.Isn't It A Lovely Night
Isn't a lovely night？
And so alive with fireflies providing us their holy light
And here we made a bed of boughs
And thistle down that we had found to lay upon the dewy ground
And isn't a lovely way
We got in from our play,
Isn't it babe？ A sweet little baby
Wasn't it a lovely breeze
That swept the leaves of arbor eaves
and bent to brush our blushing knees？
And here we died our little deaths
And we were left to catch our breaths
so switftly lifting from our chests？
And isn't it a lovely way
we got in from our play
Isn't it babe？
A sweet little baby
8.The Wanting Comes In Waves Repaid
The Decemberists - The Wanting Comes In Waves ／ Repaid
Mother, I can hear your footfall now
Soft disturbance in the dead fall
How it precedes you like a black smoke, oh
Still the wanting comes in waves
You delivered me from danger then
Pulled my cradle from the reedy glen
Swore to save me from the world of men
Still the wanting comes in waves
And the wanting comes in waves
And the wanting comes in waves
And I want this night
And I want this night, ah, oh
How I made you, I wrought you, I pulled you
From ore I labored you
From cancer I cradled you
And now, this is how I am repaid
This is how I am repaid
Remember when I found you
The miseries that hounded you
And I gave you motion, anointed you with lotions
And now, this is how I am repaid
This is how I am repaid
Mother hear this proposition right
Grant me freedom to enjoy this night
And I'll return to you at break of light
For the wanting comes in waves, in waves, in waves
Still the wanting comes in waves
Still the wanting comes in waves
Still the wanting comes in waves
And you owe me life
And you owe me life, ah, oh
And if I grant you this favor, to hand you
Your life for the evening I will retake by morning
And so consider it your debt repaid
Consider it your debt repaid, repaid, repaid
9.An Interlude
10.The Rake's Song
I had entered into a marriage
In the summer of my twenty-first year
And the bells rang for our wedding
Only now do I remember it clear
Alright, alright, alright
No more a rake and no more a bachelor
I was wedded and it whetted my thirst
Until her womb start spilling out babies
Only then did I reckon my curse
Alright, alright, alright
Alright, alright, alright
First came Isaiah with his crinkled little fingers
Then came Charlotte and that wretched girl Dawn
Ugly Myfanwy died on delivery
Mercifully taking her mother along
Alright, alright, alright
What can one do when one is widower
Shamefully saddled with three little pests
All that I wanted was the freedom of a new life
So my burden I began to divest
Alright, alright, alright
Alright, alright, alright
Charlotte I buried after feeding her foxglove
Dawn was easy, she was drowned in the bath
Isaiah fought but was easily bested
Burned his body for incurring my wrath
Alright, alright, alright
And that's how I came your humble narrator
To be living so easy and free
Expect you think that I should be haunted
But it never really bothers me
Alright, alright, alright
Alright, alright, alright
11.The Abduction Of Margaret
And all the while whispering arbors provide cover
What previous witnessed ardors of our lovers
Our heroine here falls prey to her abductor!
All a'gallop with Margaret slung rude across withers
Having clamped her innocent fingers in fetters
This villain must calculate crossing the wild river!
12.The Queen's Rebuke The Crossing
I'm made of bones of the branches, the boughs, and the
brow-beating light
Oh, my feet are the trunks and my head is the canopy high
And my fingers extend to the leaves and the eaves and the bright
Brightest shine, it's my shine
And he was a baby, abandoned entombed in a cradle of clay
And I was the soul that took pity and stole him away
And gave him the form of a fawn to inhabit by day
Brightest day, it's my day
And you have removed this temptation that's troubled my innocent
child
To abduct and abuse and to render her rift and defiled
But the river is deep to the banks and the water is wild
But I will fly you to the far side
13.Annan Water
Annan Water, you loom so deep and wide
I would cross over if you would stem the tide
I'll build a boat that I might ford the other side
To reach the farthest shore where my true love lies in wait for
me
In wait for me
In wait for me
In wait for me
O grey river, your waters ramble wild
The horses shiver and bite against the bridle
But I will cross if mine own horse is pulled from me
Though my mother cries that if I try, I sure will drowned be
Will drowned be
Will drowned be
Will drowned be
And if you calm, and let me pass
You may render me a wreck when I come back
So calm you waves and slow the churn
And you may have my precious bones on my return
Annan Water, O hear my true love's call
Here her holler above your water's pall
God that I could, that my two arms could give me wing
And I would cross your breadth and wrap my breast about her
amber ring
Her amber ring
Her amber ring
Her amber ring
But if you calm and let me pass
You may render me a wreck when I come back
So calm you waves and slow the churn
You may have my precious bones on my
On my return
14.Margaret In Captivity
I have snipped your wingspan
My precious captive swan
Here all clipped of kickstand
Your spirit won't last long
Don't you lift a finger
Don't you snap and jaw
Limber limbs akimbo
Rest until rubbing raw
O my own true love
O my own true love
Can you hear me love？
Can you hear me love？
Don't hold out for rescue
None can hear your call
Until I have wrest and wrecked you
Behind these fortress walls
O my own true love
O my own true love
Can you hear me love？
Can you hear me love？
15.The Hazards Of Love 3 (Revenge!)
Father I'm not feeling well, the flowers me you fed
Tasted spoiled for suddenly I find that I am dead
But father don't you fear, your children all are here
Singing oh, the hazards of love
Papa turn the water down, the basin's overflown
The water covers everything and me left all alone
But papa here in death, I have regained my breath
To sing oh, the hazards of love
To sing oh, the hazards of love
Spare the rod, you'll spoil the child, but I prefer the lash
My sisters drowned and poisoned all and me reduced to ash
And buried in an urn, but father I return
Singing oh, the hazards of love
Singing oh, the hazards of love
The hazards of love
The hazards of love
16.The Wanting Comes In Waves (Reprise)
17.The Hazards Of Love 4 (The Drowned)
Margaret, array the rocks
around the hole before we're sinking
A million stones, a million bones,
a million holes within the chinking
And painting rings around your eyes,
these peppered holes too filled with crying
A whispered weight upon the tattered down
where you and I were lying
Tell me now, tell me this,
a forest's son, a river's daughter
A willow on the will-o'-wisp,
our ghost to wander all of the water
So let's be married here today,
these rushing waves, to bear our witness
And we will lie like river stones,
rolling only where it takes us
But I pulled you and I called you here
(Didn't I？ Didn't I？ Didn't I？)
And I caught you and I brought you here
(Didn't I？ Didn't I？ Didn't I？)
These hazards of love
Never more will trouble us
O Margaret the lapping waves
are licking quietly at our ankles
Another bow, another breath,
this brilliant chill has come to shackle
With this long last rush of air,
we'll speak our vows of starry whisper
And when the waves came crashing down,
he closed his eyes and softly kissed her
But I pulled you and I called you here
(Didn't I？ Didn't I？ Didn't I？)
And I caught and I brought you here
(Didn't I？ Didn't I？ Didn't I？)
The hazards of love
Never more will trouble us
And these hazards of love
Never more will trouble us
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