leonard cohen • federico garcía lorca
This song was first released in 1986 as a part of the Federico García Lorca tribute album "Poet in New York" (Poeta en Nueva York), and the words are a loose translation of "Pequeño vals vienés" (Little Viennese Waltz). In 1988 it was included with Cohen's studio album "I'm Your Man", added violin and the marvellous co-vocal of Jennifer Warnes.
The spanish poet's full name was Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (1898 – 1936). He was also a playwright and theatre director. He was executed by nationalists at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, and his body was never found. His works was a great inspiration to Cohen in his youth, and his daughter got the name "Lorca" after him.
now in Vienna there's ten pretty women
there's a shoulder where death comes to cry
there's a lobby with nine hundred windows
there's a tree where the doves go to die
there's a piece that was torn from the morning
and it hangs in the gallery of frost
ay! ... ay ay ay
take this waltz : take this waltz
take this waltz with the clamp on its jaws
oh I want you...I want you...I want you
on a chair with a dead magazine
in the cave at the tip of the lily
in some hallways where love's never been
on a bed where the moon has been sweating
in a cry filled with footsteps and sand
ay! ... ay ay ay
take this waltz : take this waltz
take its broken waist in your hand
this waltz ... this waltz ... this waltz ... this waltz
with its very own breath of brandy and death
dragging its tail in the sea
there's a concert hall in Vienna
where your mouth had a thousand reviews
there's a bar where the boys have stopped talking
they've been sentenced to death by the blues
ah but who is it climbs to your picture
with a garland of freshly cut tears?
ay! ... ay ay ay
take this waltz : take this waltz
take this waltz it's been dying for years
there's an attic where children are playing
where I've got to lie down with you soon
in a dream of hungarian lanterns
in the mist of some sweet afternoon
and I'll see what you've chained to your sorrow
all your sheep and your lilies of snow
ay! ... ay ay ay
take this waltz : take this waltz
with its "I'll never forget you, you know!"
this waltz ... this waltz ... this waltz ... this waltz
with its very own breath of brandy and death
dragging its tail in the sea
and I'll dance with you in Vienna
I'll be wearing a river's disguise
the hyacinth wild on my shoulder
my mouth on the dew of your thighs
and I'll bury my soul in a scrapbook
with the photographs there ... and the moss
and I'll yield to the flood of your beauty
my cheap violin and my cross
and you'll carry me down on your dancing
to the pools that you lift on your wrist
oh my love ... oh my love
take this waltz : take this waltz
it's yours now : it's all that there is
For the following CHORD section, fullscreen/horizontal mobile is recommended.
Chords in brackets may be omitted.
C C/B Am now in Vienna there's ten pretty women C Em Am there's a shoulder where death comes to cry F G there's a lobby with nine hundred windows F C ...E7 there's a tree where the doves go to die Am there's a piece that was torn from the morning Dm A7 Dm and it hangs in the gallery of frost F C ay ay ay ay E7 Bdim Am take this waltz take this waltz D F take this waltz with the clamp on its jaws [G ... Am ... G ... G7] Am this waltz this waltz this waltz this waltz Dm Am with its very own breath of brandy and death Dm C dragging its tail in the sea
