That Old Viennese Waltz
I saw you in an old Café in Vienna
Choclate & gold were the walls
A yellow chiffon dress you were wearing
As you danced that old Viennese Waltz.
The wounded and mutilated soldiers
Paid a mark to danse with you a turn
Many cried on your shoulder
Your face was a picture of pain
As you danced to that ancient refrain
I sat in a corner and watched you
Still too young and to fresh and too clean
Following each move of your footsteps
As you danced it again and again and again.
The war years raised me to a staion
So far from the slum from which I came
But when I entered that Club on the Tiergaaten
You were still dancing to the same sad refrain
My uniform black, Death Heads in silver I wore
a tremble I felt as my feet touched the floor
Of that Viennese Waltz once again
Still that familiar refrain
May dance with you 'Mein Liebe ?'
I asked politely, your style pleases my eye,
Do I know you from somewhere Mein Herr Kapitan
As you caught my eyes in full shame
Again & again & again;
Why I think not, the lie from my lips just slid
Like a snake from an old skin
I'm back from the Eastern Front
And this is my favorite refrain.
2.
You took me and shook me as we twirled
around that tiny Dance floor
T'was then I knew I loved you
as I'd never loved before.
What makes a man love I asked myself
As your head on my shoulder it lay
Is it a chemical reaction
Or the waltz that makes me so fey?
'Can I see you when all this is finished'
like a suppliant for a job of esteem
we can wine & dine on Baltic oyters
and still listen to that Viennese refrain.
If I say No you'll imprison me
if i say Yes it's almost the same
Your cold hands on my throat so Stalingrad cold
And still that terrible refrain.
A club in a cellar we found
A flute of real Champagne
drunken men shouting the words to Lili Marlene.
As the dawn rose over Berlin
My room as cold as Siberian ice
The drone of bombers in the sky
Your lovely face lay dead on my shoulder
I still sung that Viennese Refrain.
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