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VAN MORRISON lyrics : "Song Of Being A Child"

(Words by Peter Handke, Van Morrison)
When the child was a child
It walked with arms hanging

Wanted the stream to be a river and the river a torrent
And this puddle, the sea
When the child was a child, it didn't know

It was a child
Everything for it was filled with life and all life was one
Saw the horizon without trying to reach it

Couldn't rush itself And think on command
Was often terribly bored
And couldn't wait

Passed up greeting the moments
And prayed only with it's lips
When the child was a child

It didn't have an opinion about a thing
Had no habits
Often sat crossed-legged, took off running

Had a cow lick in it's hair
And didn't put on a face when photographed


When the child was a child
It was the time of the following questions
Why am I me and why not you

Why am I here and why not there
Why did time begin and where does space end
Isn't what I see and hear and smell

Just the appearance of the world in front of the world
Isn't life under the sun just a dream
Does evil actually exist in people

Who really are evil
Why can't it be that I who am
Wasn't before I was

And that sometime I, the I, I am
No longer will be the I, I am


When the child was a child
It gagged on spinach, on peas, on rice pudding
And on steamed cauliflower

And now eats all of it and not just because it has to
When the child was a child
It woke up once in a strange bed

And now time and time again
Many people seem beautiful to it
And now not so many and now only if it's lucky

It had a precise picture of paradise
And now can only vaguely conceive of it at best
It couldn't imagine nothingness

And today shudders in the face of it
Go for the ball
Which today rolls between it's legs

With it's I'm here it came
Into the house which now is empty


When the child was a child
It played with enthusiasm
And now only with such former concentration

Where it's work is concerned
When the game, task, activity, subject happens to be it's
work


When the child was a child
It was enough to live on apples and bread. And it's still that

way
When the child was a child berries fell
Only like berries into it's hand. And still do

The fresh walnuts made it's tongue raw. And still do
Atop each mountain it craved
Yet a higher mountain. And in each city it craved

Yet a bigger city. And still does
Reach for the cherries in the treetop
As elated as it still is today

Was shy in front of strangers. And still is
It waited for the first snow. And still waits that way
When the child was a child

It waited restlessly each day for the return of the loved one
And still waits that way
When the child was a child
It hurled a stick like a lance into a tree
And it's still quivering there today


The child, the child was a child
Was a child, was a child, was a child, was a child
Child, child, child
When the child, when the child, when the child

When the child, when the child
The child, child, child, child, child

[added words by Van Morrison]
And on and on and on and on, etc. And onward

With a sense of wonder
Upon the highest hill. Upon the highest hill
When the child was a child
Are you there
Shassas, shassas

Up on a highest hill
When the child was a child, was a child, was a child
Was a child, was a child, was a child, etc.

[fade to end]

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