The Man Who Spoke To The Earth

Music & lyrics: Lorenzo Testa

Tunes:
The Bogman (Lorenzo Testa)
The Czar of Munster (Séamus Egan)
Coleraine’s Jig (traditional)

Only after navigating through hard times, struggles, sacrifice and hard work you can really appreciate life for what it is. You need to get scarred hands to keep on searching for happiness. Heard the amazing Czar’s reel at Glasgow sessions, while Colerain’s is one of my favourite jigs ever; we were hesitant to use it at the end of this song, but well… it was too good to be taken out!

The King is sitting on his throne,
His white well-groomed beard
He pays heed to obsequious men
whose truth he has never heard

The lady with waxed shoes,
Has never smelt the soil
Under her manicured nails
that didn’t know the toil

I am just a poor man
on his own
But they will never know
what I’ve known

The Queen, at sunset gazing
is impassive and alone
Imprisoned in a golden jail
A heart could turn to stone

The bishop from the pulpit
Is judging us down here
He never knew those small sins
which make our life so dear

I am just a poor man
on his own
But they will never know
what I’ve known

The peasant with the hunched back
Clumps along his path
Shattered by the struggles
Of that rugged life he hath

He stands up there on the hill
Cherishing the dawn
A smile drawn on his face
While he softly croons this song

I am just a poor man
on his own
They will never know
what I’ve known