How come we don’t know what’s really important?
How come little things get in the way?

Say my dear, do you remember when
The world was young, and all the time we’d spend
You lovin me, me lovin you
But years have passed, and all the stars have crossed
And somewhere in there something good got lost
You lovin me, me lovin you

How come we don’t know what’s really important?
How come little things get in the way?

Sun is out – I’ve made a list
Today I’ll get caught up on all the things I’ve missed
And the only thing is lovin you
Say my dear, do you remember when
The world was young, and all the time we’d spend
You lovin me, me lovin you
You lovin me, me lovin you
You lovin me, me lovin you

How come we don’t know what’s really important?

If the day is done tonight
The sun doesn’t rise tomorrow
Please tell your mother
That there never was another
And I loved her daughter
More that I could ever say

My eyes are in upside down
But you are my crown
You’re the contest and the prize
I won by being clever
As we act on our whims
Only love will be our mentor
But when you ask to come in
I’ll bid you do not enter

If the day is done tonight
The sun doesn’t rise tomorrow
Please tell your mother
That there never was another
And I loved her daughter
More that I could ever say

My ears are on backwards
Yours are the best lies I’ve ever heard
I’ll knit together all of your yarns
Into a perfect tent
You take a page from my book
And three chapters from my story
I’ll say I made you look
But I’ll never say I’m sorry

If the day is done tonight
The sun doesn’t rise tomorrow
Please tell your mother
That there never was another
And I loved her daughter
More that I could ever say

Well I love you, Baby
It’s understood
Don’t know what ya do
But you sure do it good

Woke right up in love with you
Baby don’t it feel fine

You look in a mirror
You look in a book
You look in a lover
And that’s all it took

  Days blow like drifting leaves
  Piled up around your door
  All of these memories
  What are they for?

Three hundred sixty-five
Sunsets and dawns
You add one to your age
And the world spins on

All of your pleasures
And all your regrets
The people remember
But the Earth forgets

  Days blow like drifting leaves
  Piled up around your door
  All of these memories
  What are they for?

You push and you pull
You laugh and you cry
You give and you take
And a year goes by

In the Grand Banks off of Newfoundland
The fishing fleets are riding low
Two miles above the dark Titanic
An iceberg passes, drifting slow
The old Atlantic is a barrier
With rolling waves and blowing mist
But though an ocean lies between us
My body reaches for your kiss

New York is busy making money
Around a hole blown in the ground
Chicago is a windy city
With gusts that almost knock you down
The muddy mighty Mississippi
Is too wide to easily dismiss
But though a continent divides us
My body reaches for your kiss

  No one knows the heart’s geography
  I checked the maps — it doesn’t show
  It’s such an intimate cartography
  Like Magellan, you have to draw it as you go

There’s a lake in Carlsbad Caverns
That’s never seen the light of day
But little creatures live and die there
They don’t know any other way
It truly is a world of wonders
And there must be one or two I’ve missed
But through the depths and breadths between us
My body reaches for your kiss

For your kiss

Here is the original poem:

Acontece quando mais o esperamos:
um punho bate à porta,
não se trata do carteiro
nem da juventude. Diz-se
da família. Vem para ficar.

Começa por brincar às escondidas
com os nossos pensamentos.
Acorda-nos de noite, diverte-se
a romper as sapatilhas,
deixa frascos de formol
sobre a mesa da cozinha.

Primeiro, não sabendo o que fazer,
tentamos distrair a sua fome,
mostramos-lhe o relógio,
passamos-lhe a carteira para as mãos,
os botões da gabardine, os anéis.
Por último, os dedos.

Neste passo, depressa nos convence
a tratá-lo por senhor, a ceder-lhe num sorriso
a cadeira do avô, o telefone
dos amigos, a vista da janela.
De cabeça descoberta
servimos o jantar.

Com o tempo percebemos:
quer vestir-nos do avesso,
forrar de vento norte
a gola dos casacos, levar-nos a dizer:
“há nas folhas do Outono vivo lume,
que faço eu em minha casa?”

Here is my “translation:”

The Corn Feast

I see four bushels of corn on the sidewalk:
cobbed bites all a-yellow.
The dancing sister brought her cart
and left these children, a brightness,
pleasant as parrots among the pinyon.

Come, you poor, and we will eat.
Come, I have sweet pimentos and Juan
will play the accordion! A diversion!
And sobriety isn’t for corn, so
bring beer if you can.

Primarily, we do not bend or hang our heads,
should even ten distresses advance. They will pass us
like the sister’s cart. We are natural like the corn
and the wind. We can live in our place.

We won’t die tonight, or be afraid of any beast.
Though we are poor we are firm, never sorry
to sing our songs and to tell our friends
of our jangling, inner vistas. So don’t
be disconcerted. Let us serve each other
from the pots and jars.

Come, let us be tempted to be at peace. I question
vestments and other aggrandizement.
The rich venture forth for nothing, clicking
their golden castanets. I remember the words of my father:
“All are fools, so enjoy the moonlight dance!
Are not our faces soon enough vanished from the house?”

This was such a fun exercise. I recommend it to all!

Oh yeah. For the curious, here is a real English translation of the poem:

HERE TO STAY

When we most expect it
there’s a knock on the door:
not the postman
and not youth calling. He says
he’s family and is here to stay.

First he plays hide and seek
with our thoughts.
He wakes us up at night, rips
our slippers apart for fun,
leaves jars of formaldehyde
on the kitchen table.

At a loss for what to do, we try
to divert his hunger.
We show him our watch,
give him our wallet,
the buttons of our raincoat, our rings.
And finally our fingers.

At which point he persuades us
to call him sir and to offer him
our grandfather’s chair, the phone numbers
of our friends, the view from the window.
With head uncovered
we serve dinner.

In time we realize
he wants to dress us inside out,
to line our coat collars
with the north wind, to have us say:
“the autumn leaves are burning bright,
what am I doing at home?”

They always told me to play right handed.

If I was a piano and you bought a guitar,
Would I stand there silent? Why are your hands so far
From me? Where is the music electricity flowing
Between your hands and my keys?

Do you miss me? I guess I’m better off now.
With these spiders as my friends in my cobweb wedding dress.
I’ll marry the window and the great wide world outside
And you’ll be sorry.

I’ll find a pretty girl who never learned to sing.
She’ll stand behind the band and won’t make love to guitar strings.
True to me, yes she’s so, and you know that I’m so…
I’m relieved. Do you miss me?

These lyrics are loosely based on this comic.

When I wake in the morning
What is my first thought
Is it all the things I’m missing
Or all the things I’ve got

Sometimes when I’ll next see you
Sometimes how long it’s been
Sometimes it is well planned
Or else it is a whim

And I’m falling now
Into this sleep
Will you wake
Or let me dream

When I sleep in the evening
What is my last wish
Am I counting sheep or
All the times we’ve kissed

Sometimes I ponder god
I wonder why he listens
Sometimes to get to sleep
You solve for x with long division

And I’m falling now
Into this sleep
Will you wake
Or let me dream

Don’t say anything
Just lie beside me now
I know you don’t love me
I know when to take a bow

And I’m falling now
Into this sleep
Will you wake
Or let me dream

I’m only one star in your sky
Lost in an ocean of twinkling light
I’m only one star in your sky
But you’re the moon to me
The bright full moon to me

On warm summer evenings I’ve stood out and watched her
And struggled with feelings I couldn’t name
A few lucky fellas have reached out and touched her
And after the touching were never the same

I’m only one star in your sky
Lost in an ocean of twinkling light
I’m only one star in your sky
But you’re the moon to me
The bright full moon to me

It’s cloudy tonight, the whole sky is covered
The full moon is hiding, but I know she’s there
‘Cause I can see a faint glow, I can feel her tides tuggin
And I’m certain she’s shining on someone somewhere

I often post song lyrics in groups of two.  Something prods me to post the first, and the first prods me to post the second.  Usually I see a connection, but the connection this time is a mystery to me.  Maybe it’s male / female, or empty / full.  I’m not sure.

Here’s the mp3: Full Moon

I have been famous for being obscure
And I got me a fine set of symptoms, but nary a cure
I’ve struggled hard at my life
Sustaining an effort just barely enough to get by
But I’m still in there pluggin
I still gotta try

Back roads and part-time jobs are my trade
And I have been known to sleep through the parade
I stand on my principles
Watching the world wash around me and staying high and dry
Oh I may never make it
But I still gotta try

You may have seen me, in the gravel
   walkin slow by the side
But you kept on drivin
   Don’t slow down, you just might have somethin to hide
Me I got nothin but the clothes on my back
And some sad stranger’s name
I’ll continue to try
Though much remains the same

I have been famous for being obscure
And I got me a fine set of symptoms, but nary a cure
I’ve struggled hard at my life
Sustaining an effort just barely enough to get by
But I’m still in there pluggin
I still gotta try

And here’s the mp3: I Gotta Try