“LIZARD”, 1970 “ISLANDS”, 1971 “EARTHBOUND”, live album, 1972
PETER SINFIELD plus LOUIS JORDAN
photo
Dear Vladimir, …I send you a separate email saying Yeah… Go ahead for the benefit of your publishers. And I am happy to do so!
Kind regards, Piter (Sinfield)
June 29, 2000
“IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING”
translations into Russian
album information
21st Century Schizoid Man
© 1969 EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Ltd 1969.
translation into Russian
released on
Cat's foot iron claw
Neuro-surgeons scream for more
At paranoia's poison door
Twenty first century schizoid man.
Blood rack barbed wire
Politicians' funeral pyre
Innocents raped with napalm fire
Twenty first century schizoid man.
Death seed blind man's greed
Poets' starving children bleed
Nothing he's got he really needs
Twenty first century schizoid man.
Updated version for "The Elements of King Crimson" US Tour 2014
Cats foot, iron claw
Sykes, Picot and the fat cigar*
Knuckles dragging in the desert sand.
Twenty first century schizoid man.
Blood rack, dark wire
Politician’s funeral pyre.
Cursed and poisoned
Bless his heart.
Twenty first century schizoid man.
Death seed
Blind men’s greed
Poet’s starving children bleed
Nothing he’s got he really needs
Twenty first century schizoid man.
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* The hint on irresponsible eastern policy of "great" powers. The Sykes-Picot Agreement (16.05.1916) – a secret agreement between the governments of the United Kingdom, France, Russia and later Italy, defining spheres of influence in the Middle East after World War I. The fat cigar relates to Winston Churchill. "Winston's Hiccup" (also known as "Churchill's Sneeze") means the zigzag shape section of Jordan's eastern border with Saudi Arabia, supposedly created in 1921 when Churchill (then the Secretary of State for the Colonies) drew the boundary of the British protectorate of Transjordan being drunk.
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I Talk to The Wind
© 1969 EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Ltd 1969.
translation into Russian
released on
Said the straight man to the late man
Were have you been
I've been here and I've been there
And I've been in between.
I talk to the wind
My words are all carried away
I talk to the wind
The wind does not hear
The wind cannot hear.
I'm on the outside looking inside
What do I see
Much confusion, disillusion
All around me.
You don't possess me
Don't impress me
Just upset my mind
Can't instruct me or conduct me
Just use up my time.
I talk to the wind
My words are all carried away
I talk to the wind
The wind does not hear
The wind cannot hear.
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Epitaph
© 1969 EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Ltd 1969.
translation into Russian
released on
Peter Sinfield and Boris Berezovsky (in Russian)
The wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams.
Upon the instruments of death
The sunlight brightly gleams.
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and with dreams,
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
As silence drowns the screams.
Between the iron gates of fate,
The seeds of time were sown,
And watered by the deeds of those
Who know and who are known;
Knowledge is a deadly friend
When no one sets the rules.
The fate of all mankind I see
Is in the hands of fools.
Confusion will be my epitaph.
As I crawl a cracked and broken path
If we'll make it we can all sit back and laugh.
But I fear tomorrow I'll be crying,
Yes I fear tomorrow I'll be crying.
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Moonchild
© 1969 EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Ltd 1969.
translation into Russian
released on
Call her moonchild
Dancing in the shallows of a river
Lovely moonchild
Dreaming in the shadow of the willow.
Talking to the trees of the
cobweb strange
Sleeping on the steps of a fountain
Waving silver wands to the
night-birds song
Waiting for the sun on the mountain.
She's a moonchild
Gathering the flowers in a garden
Lovely moonchild
Drifting on the echoes of the hours.
Sailing on the wind
in a milk white gown
Dropping circle stones on a sun dial
Playing hide and seek
with the ghosts of dawn
Waiting for the smile from a sun child.
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The Court of the Crimson King
© 1969 EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Ltd 1969.
translation into Russian
released on
The rusted chains of prison moons
Are shattered by the sun.
I walk a road, horizons change
The tournament's begun.
The purple piper plays his tune,
The choir softly sing;
Three lullabies in an ancient tongue,
For the court of the Crimson King.
The keeper of the city keys
Put shutters on the dreams.
I wait outside the pilgrim's door
With insufficient schemes.
The black queen chants
the funeral march,
The cracked brass bells will ring;
To summon back the fire witch
To the court of the Crimson King.
The gardener plants an evergreen
Whilst trampling on a flower.
I chase the wind of a prism ship*
To taste the sweet and sour.
The pattern juggler lifts his hand;
The orchestra begin.
As slowly turns the grinding wheel
In the court of the Crimson King.
On soft gray mornings widows cry
The wise men share a joke;
I run to grasp dividing signs
To satisfy the hoax.
The yellow jester does not play
But gently pulls the strings
And smiles as the puppets dance
In the court of the Crimson King.
------------------------------
* It is possible that the "prism ship" is Sinfield’s version of Jim Morrison’s of The Doors “crystal ship”, symbolizing human life.
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“IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON”
translations into Russian
album information
Peace - A Beginning
© 1970 EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Ltd 1970.
translation into Russian
released on
I am the ocean
Lit by the flame
I am the mountain
Peace is my name
I am the river
Touched by the wind
I am the story
I never end.
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Pictures of a City
© 1970 EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Ltd 1970.
translation into Russian
released on
Concrete cold face cased in steel
Stark sharp glass-eyed crack and peel
Bright light scream beam brake and squeal
Red white green white neon wheel.
Dream flesh love chase perfumed skin
Greased hand teeth hide tinseled sin
Spice ice dance chance sickly grin
Pasteboard time slot sweat and spin.
Blind stick blind drunk cannot see
Mouth dry tongue tied cannot speak
Concrete dream flesh broken shell
Lost soul lost trace lost in hell.
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Cadence and Cascade
© 1970 EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Ltd 1970.
translation into Russian
released on
Cadence and Cascade
Kept a man named Jade
Cool in the shade
While his audience played.
Purred, whispered, “Spend us too:
We only serve for you”.
Sliding mystified
On the wine of the tide
Stared pale-eyed
As his veil fell aside.
Sad paper courtesans
They found him just a man.
Caravan hotel
Where the sequin* spell fell
Custom of the game.
Cadence oiled in love
Licked his velvet gloved hand
Cascade kissed his name.
Sad paper courtesans
They knew him just a man.
------------------------------
* Old Italian or Turkish gold coin.
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In the Wake of Poseidon
© 1970 EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Ltd 1970.
translation into Russian
released on
Plato's spawn cold ivyed eyes
Snare truth in bone and globe.
Harlequins coin pointless games
Sneer jokes in parrot's robe.
Two women weep, Dame Scarlet Screen
Sheds sudden theatre rain,
Whilst dark in dream the Midnight Queen
Knows every human pain.
In air, fire, earth and water
World on the scales.
Air, fire, earth and water
Balance of change
World on the scales
On the scales.
Bishop's kings* spin judgment's blade
Scratch “Faith” on nameless graves.
Harvest hags, hoard ash and sand
Rack rope and chain for slaves
Who fireside fear fermented words
Then rear to spoil the feast;
Whilst in the aisle the mad man smiles
To him it matters least.
Heroes hands drain stones of blood
To wet the scaling knife.
Magi blind with visions light
Net death in dread of life.
Their children kneel in Jesus till
They learn the price of nails;
Whilst all around our mother earth
Waits balanced on the scales.
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* The rulers felt under priests’ influence.
to the beginning
Cat Food
© 1970 EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Ltd 1970.
translation into Russian
released on
Lady Supermarket with an apple in her basket
Knocks in the manager's door;
Grooning to the muzak from a speaker in shoe rack
Lays out her goods on the floor;
Everything she's chosen is conveniently frozen.
“Eat it and come back for more!”
Lady Window Shopper with a new one in the hopper
Whips up a chemical brew;
Croaking to a neighbour while she polishes a sabre
Knows how to flavour a stew.
Never need to worry with a tin of “Hurri Curri”:
“Poisoned especially for you!”
No use to complain
If you're caught out in the rain;
Your mother's quite insane.
Cat food cat food cat food again.
Lady Yellow Stamper with a fillet in a hamper
Dying to finish the course;
Goodies for the table with a fable on the label
Drowning in miracle sauce.
Don't think I am that rude if I tell you that it's cat food,
“Not even fit for a horse!”
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Peace - An End
© 1970 EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Ltd 1970.
translation into Russian
released on
Peace is a word
Of a sea and the wind.
Peace is a bird who sings
As you smile.
Peace is the love
Of a foe as a friend;
Peace is the love you bring
To a child.
Searching for me
You look everywhere,
Except beside you.
Searching for you
You look everywhere,
But inside you.
Peace is a stream
From the heart of a man;
Peace is a man, whose breadth
Is the dawn.
Peace is a dawn
On a day without end;
Peace is the end, like death
Of the war.
to the beginning
“LIZARD”
translations into Russian
album information
Cirkus
© 1970 Virgin EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Ltd 1970.
translation into Russian
released on
Night: her sable dome scattered with diamonds,
Fused my dust from a light year,
Squeezed me to her breast, sowed me with carbon,
Strung my warp across time
Gave me each a horse, sunrise and graveyard,
Told me only I was her;
Bid me face the east closed me in questions
Built the sky for my dawn…
Cleaned my feet of mud, followed the empty
Zebra ride to the Cirkus,
Past a painted cage, spoke to the paybox
Glove which wrote on my tongue -
Pushed me down a slide to the arena,
Megaphonium fanfare.
In his cloak of words strode the ringmaster
Bid me join the parade…
“Worship!” cried the clown, “I am a T.V.
Making bandsmen go clockwork,
See the slinky seal Circus policeman;
Bareback ladies have fish.”
Strongmen by his feet, plate-spinning statesman,
Acrobatically juggling -
Bids his tamers go quiet the tumblers
Lest the mirror stop turning…
Elephants forgot, force-fed on stale chalk,
Ate the floors of their cages.
Strongmen lost their hair, paybox collapsed and
Lions sharpened their teeth.
Gloves raced round the ring, stallions stampeded
Pandemonium seesaw…
I ran for the door, ringmasters shouted,
“All the fun of the Cirkus!”
to the beginning
Indoor Games
© 1970 Virgin EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Ltd 1970.
translation into Russian
released on
Indoor fireworks amuse your kitchen staff
Dusting plastic garlic plants
They snigger in the draught
When you ride through the parlour
Wearing nothing but your armour -
Playing Indoor Games.
One string puppet shows amuse
Your sycophantic friends
Who cheer your rancid recipes
In fear they might offend,
Whilst you loaf on your sofa
Sporting falsies and a toga -
Playing Indoor Games, Indoor Games.
Your mean teetotum spins arouse your seventh wife
Who pats her sixty little skins
And reinsure your life,
Whilst you sulk in your sauna
'Cos you lost your jigsaw corner -
Playing Indoor Games, Indoor Games.
Each afternoon you train baboons to sing
Or swim in purple perspex water wings.
Come Saturday jump hopper, chelsea brigade,
High bender-trender it's all Indoor Games.
No ball bagatelle incites
Your children to conspire,
They slide across your frying pan
And fertilize your fire;
Still you and Jones go madder
Broken bones - broken ladder -
Hey Ho…
to the beginning
Happy Family*
© 1970 Virgin EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Ltd 1970.
translation into Russian
released on
Happy family, one hand clap**, four went by and none come back.
Brother Judas, ash and sack, swallowed aphrodisiac***.
Rufus, Silas, Jonah too sang, "We'll blow our own canoes,"
Poked a finger in the zoo, punctured all the ballyhoo
Whipped the world and beat the clock, wound up with their share of
Silver Rolls**** from golden rock*****, shaken by a knock, knock, knock******.
Happy family, wave that grin, what goes round must surely spin;
Cheesecake, mousetrap*******, Grip-Pipe-Thynne******** cried out, “We're not Rin Tin Tin*********.”
Uncle Rufus grew his nose, threw away his circus clothes
Cousin Silas grew a beard, drew another flask of weird
Nasty Jonah grew a wife, Judas drew his pruning knife**********.
Happy family, one hand clap, four went on but none came back.
Happy family, pale applause, each to his revolving doors***********.
Silas searching, Rufus neat, Jonah caustic, Jude so sweet.
Let their sergeant mirror************ spin if we lose the barbers win;
Happy family, one hand clap, four went on but none came back.
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* Hint at the “legendary four” The Beatles (Judas – Paul McCartney, Rufus – Ringo Starr, Silas – George Harrison, Jonah – John Lennon).
** Phrase from the Zen Buddhist koan (riddle poem) “One Hand” by Japan poet, painter and preacher Hakuin Ekaku (1685 – 1768): "Two hands clap and there is a sound / What is the sound of one hand?" “The sound of one hand” is ephemerality, silence, or, as John Lennon said on the last public performance of The Beatles (gig on the “Apple” Studio roof), - “end of the audition”.
*** Medicine for increasing sexual attraction.
**** Automobile Rolls Royce – symbol of riches and prosperity is meant.
***** Hint at the decline of rock’s “golden era”.
****** Knock is death’s image, possibly of Brian Epstein’s (second manager of the group) death.
******* This words symbolize the failure of carefully cultivated image of The Beatles, as perfect rock-stars.
******** Character from the radio-show "The Goon Show", broadcasted by "BBC Radio" from 1951 to 1960 and beloved by all members of The Beatles.
********* Declaration that The Beatles - is something more than a simple family entertainment.
********** The Beatles just before break-up: Ringo is tired of his role as a jester, George plunged into eastern philosophy, John married Yoko Ono, Paul once and for all moved away, “cut” himself, from other members of the group.
*********** Symbol of separation, also reminds the “Revolver” album - The Beatles’s first attempt to declare themselves as serious musicians.
************ The "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album is meant.
to the beginning
Lady of the Dancing Water
© 1970 Virgin EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Ltd 1970.
translation into Russian
released on
Grass in your hair stretched like a lion in the sun
Restlessly turned moistened your mouth with your tongue.
Pouring my wine in your eyes caged mine... glowing
Touching your face my fingers strayed... knowing.
I called you lady of the dancing water.
Blown autumn leaves shed to the fire where you laid me
Burn slow to ash just as my days now seem to be.
I feel you still always your eyes... glowing
Remembered hours salt, earth and flowers... flowing.
Farewell my lady of the dancing water.
to the beginning
Prince Rupert Awakes
© 1970 Virgin EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Ltd 1970.
translation into Russian
released on
Farewell the temple master's bells
His kiosk and his black worm seed*
Courtship solely of his word
With Eden guaranteed.
For now Prince Rupert's tears of glass**
Make saffron sabbath eyelids bleed
Scar the sacred tablet of wax
On which the Lizards feed.
Wake your reason's hollow vote
Wear your blizzard season coat
Burn a bridge and burn a boat
Stake a Lizard by the throat.
Go Polonius or kneel
The reapers name their harvest dawn
All your tarnished devil's spoons
Will rust beneath our corn.
Now bears Prince Rupert's garden roam
Across his rain tree shaded lawn
Lizard bones become the clay -
And there a Swan is born.
Wake your reason's hollow vote
Wear your blizzard season coat
Burn a bridge and burn a boat
Stake a Lizard by the throat.
Gone soon Piepowder's*** moss-weed court
Round which upholstered Lizards sold
Visions to their leaden flock
Of rainbows' ends and gold.
Now tales Prince Rupert's peacock brings
Of walls and trumpets thousand fold
Prophets chained for burning masks
And reels of dream unrolled…
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* Dried out inflorescences of wormwood.
** Prince Rupert's Drops (also known as Dutch tears) are glass objects created by dripping molten glass into cold water. The glass cools into a tadpole-shaped droplet with a long, thin tail.
*** Place on the fair for pedlars and hawkers. From "pie poudreux" (French) – dusty foot, tramp.
to the beginning
The Battle of Glass Tears
© 1970 Virgin EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Ltd 1970.
translation into Russian
released on
Night enfolds her cloak of holes
Around the river meadow.
Old moon-light stalks by broken ploughs
Hides spokeless wheels in shadow.
Sentries lean on thorn wood spears
Blow on their hands, stare eastwards.
Burnt with dream and taut with fear
Dawn's misty shawl upon them.
Three hills apart great armies stir
Spit oat and curse as day breaks.
Forming lines of horse and steel
By even yards march forward.
to the beginning
“ISLANDS”
translations into Russian
album information
Formentera* Lady
© 1971 EG Music Ltd. © 1971 EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Inc. (BMI) 1971.
translation into Russian
released on
Houses iced in whitewash guard a pale shore-line
Cornered by the cactus and the pine.
Here I wander where sweet sage and strange herbs grow
Down a sun-baked crumpled stony road.
Dusty wheels leaning rusting in the sun;
Snuff brown walls where Spanish lizards run.
Here I'm shadowed by a dragon fig tree's fan
Ringed by ants and musing over man.
I'll unwind my old strings while the sun shine down
Won't climb any high thing while the sun shine.
Formentera Lady sing your song for me
Formentera Lady sun lover.
Lamplights glows on old guitars the travellers strum;
Incense children dance to an Indian drum.
Here Odysseus** charmed for dark Circe*** fell,
Still her perfume lingers still her spell.
Time's grey hand won't catch me while the sun shine down
Untie and unlatch me while the stars shine.
Formentera Lady dance your dance for me
Formentera Lady dark lover.
------------------------------
* Small island in Mediterranean sea near Spain.
** Main hero of Homer’s epic poem "Odyssey".
*** Wicked enchantress from "Odyssey".
to the beginning
The Letters
© 1971 EG Music Ltd. © 1971 EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Inc. (BMI) 1971.
translation into Russian
released on
With quill and silver knife
She carved a poison pen
Wrote to her lover's wife:
“Your husband's seed has fed my flesh.”
As if a leper's face
That tainted letter graced
The wife with choke-stone throat
Ran to the day with tear blind eyes.
Impaled on nails of ice
And racked with emerald fire
The wife with soul of snow
With steady hands begins to write.
“I'm still, I need no life
To serve on boys and men
What's mine was yours is dead
I take my leave of mortal flesh.”
to the beginning
Ladies of the Road
© 1971 EG Music Ltd. © 1971 EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Inc. (BMI) 1971.
translation into Russian
released on
A flower lady's daughter
As sweet as holy water
Said: “I'm the school reporter
Please teach me”, well I taught her.
Two fingered levi'd sister
Said, “Peace”, I stopped I kissed her.
Said, “I'm a male resister”,
I smiled and just unzipped her.
High diving chinese trender
Black hair and black suspender
Said, “Please me no surrender
Just love to feel your Fender*.”
All of you know that the girls of the road
Are like apples you stole in your youth.
All of you know that the girls of the road
Been around but are versed in the truth.
Stone-headed Frisco spacer
Ate all the meat I gave her
Said would I like to taste hers
And even craved the flavour.
“Like marron-glaced fish bones
Oh lady hit the road!”
All of you know that the girls of the road
Are like apples you stole in your youth.
All of you know that the girls of the road
Been around but are versed in the truth.
------------------------------
* Model of electric guitar and a hint at the phallus.
to the beginning
Islands
© 1971 EG Music Ltd. © 1971 EG Records Ltd. Published by EG Music Inc. (BMI) 1971.
translation into Russian
released on
Earth, stream and tree encircled by sea
Waves sweep the sand from my island.
My sunsets fade.
Field and glade wait only for rain
Grain after grain love erodes my
High weathered walls which fend off the tide
Cradle the wind to my island.
Gaunt granite climbs where gulls wheel and glide
Mournfully glide o'er my island.
My dawn bride's veil, damp and pale,
Dissolves in the sun.
Love's web is spun - cats prowl, mice run
Wreathe snatch-hand briars where owls know my eyes
Violet skies touch my island, touch me.
Beneath the wind turned wave
Infinite peace
Islands join hands
'Neath heaven's sea.
Dark harbour quays like fingers of stone
Hungrily reach from my island.
Clutch sailor's words - pearls and gourds
Are strewn on my shore.
Equal in love, bound in circles
Earth, stream and tree return to the sea
Waves sweep sand from my island, from me.
to the beginning
“EARTHBOUND”
translations into Russian
album information
Peoria (Louis Jordan)
© ?
translation into Russian
released on
It makes no difference
What you think about me.
It makes a whole lot of difference
What I think about you.*
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* Extract from the 1949 Louis Jordan hit "Beans and Cornbread".
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