Pictures In A Mirror Lyrics - Incredible String Band

Deep in the hollow jail, sleeps Lord Randall 

The mixed voices speak of bread and of sheets that were 

Scarlet and blue are at his head 

His heart like a cat drowns in a well 

He thinks of all the girls he will not love 

He thinks not of the future or the past 

Blue lightning spikes the hills above the sea 

Where Kasa's ship sets sail for other where 

There stands the chief with gold on his hair 

Two fingers thick each link of coiled ore 

Speaks to his white skinned wife, she answers not 

He hurls his question angry to the gulls 

His wife strikes her mouth with a skull like sound 

The bleeding image of her loss revolves above her mind 

With every line in its design and accusing eye 

That pierces Kasa's soul 

The slaves row on beneath the dragon flag 

His heart recoils recall his red haired son 

Beneath the burning walls that he razed down 

His wife and he speak not as wine is brought 

A cup that seethes like the black blood of wolves 

His wife's dagger is hidden in her dress 

He drinks joyless to a dark sleep 

The Jailer bangs the iron door 

Lord Randall wakes, wakes in pain 

He shakes his shackles in the beaten gloom 

The blood of his wounds is hard as coal 

The Jailer leads him out upon the blinding bright stair 

He feels uneven turf beneath his feet 

The priest intones, the sword falls on his neck 

The pain is boiling cold 

They lay him in the tomb at the break of day 

They close the earthen door upon his clay 

The birds are plucking worms from the ground 

Their feathers gray as mist on a cloudy morn 

Foresters burn branches from the sleeping trees 

The white sun turns to stone 

His mother lies in her labor nine days long 

She called on Saint Bridget in her time 

I looked out on the room of my birth 

With hangings rich of many strange designs 

Nobles stand with their wine cups in the room 

Saluting me and she the King's queen 

Already, I am forgetting who I am 

Already, I've forgotten who I've been 

My mother lifts me up to her huge soft breast 

Her nipple like a berry both hard and brown 

Her eyes look on me like waves of the sea 

And with small lips the yellow milk I draw