The Goose Girl

Lyrics

[Intro]
(a pastoral lament, hurdy-gurdy and strings under a grey sky)

[Verse 1]
My mother sent me off to be married with a drop of her blood in a cloth,
but the maid grew bold on the long road out and she stripped my station off.
Took my horse, took my name, took my place at the prince's side,
and swore me silent under heaven — so out to the geese I was tied.

[Chorus]
But they nailed my Falada's head to the gate, and he speaks there still and true:
"if your mother knew, poor princess, oh, the grief would run her through."
You can steal a face, you can steal a throne, but the truth learns how to keep —
it hides in a horse's head on a wall and it testifies from sleep.

[Verse 2]
The wind would lift young Conrad's hat every time he came too near,
and the old king watched the goose girl weep the things she couldn't say clear.
So I told my whole grief to an iron stove with my back to the listening door,
and the king pressed close to the chimney flue and he heard it, and he knew the score.

[Bridge]
(the hurdy-gurdy steadies)
He asked the false one at the feast what a thief like that deserves,
and she named her own barrel of nails, not knowing she'd struck her own nerve.

[Outro]
They gave me back my name and my prince and the maid got the end she'd decreed...
the truth may go to the geese for a while, but the truth learns how to lead.