Under the Lime Tree - Angelo Branduardi

Down in the greenwood, under the lime tree

we spent lover’s hours

and if you pass by you’ll know we lay there,

look how we crushed all the flowers.

The insects buzzed and the nightingales sang

high above the forest on a soft south wind,

point and laugh if you come walking past

I don’t care at all how red her mouth is.

Down in the greenwood, under the lime tree

crushing the grass and the sweet herbs

there in the roses I laid my head down,

see where the petals are disturbed.

And if you accuse her of lying there with me this I know for sure she will never be ashamed:

she was the one, the one and only woman

I ever came to wish would whisper my name.

Down in the greenwood, under the lime tree

the lily embraces the ivy

and if you pass by, stop look and marvel

at how she has grown to survive him

for she stayed here with me for just a year

and bound her hair with gold,

oh my little white dove…

one fine day she turned into a hawk

and flew off to the sun to find a new love.

Up in the blue sky ever the wind flies

searching the clouds of his dreamland,

the dream is for beauty but he’ll

never catch her…

She’ll always slip through his hands

and thus we live forever and the dream

just like the wind and clouds will escape us…

And thus we live forever and the world

just like the wind and clouds will escape us