The Empress Of China Lyrics

Dory Previn The Empress Of China

I tell you how i hate you
in the voice my father used
you answer with your mother's worn cliches
and in another life
your father hears his wife
and i see his fury blazing
in your gaze

an echo hears an echo
and my mother's fist is raised
the hand i clench at you
shows her distrust
the way one behaves
is determined in the graves
of all the great grandparents
gone to dust

our fathers fight through us
as they fought their father's war
and the same old scene's repeated
as before and before and before
and before and before
and when i tell you how i hate you
before the birth of Jesus
before the death of caesar
before siddhartha
before ulysses
before the trojan war
i tell you how i hate you
and a long decaying anger
comes alive inside a castle
and behind an ancient door
the empress of chine
tells her lover how she
hates him
she tells him
once more
and once more
and once more
and once more...