Vagabond Opera — Coimbra lyrics

Lyrics

The crooked streets of Coimbra
Smoking a cigar
The students singing fado
With a black look and guitar
The orange peel unwinding
In the robust underbelly
In the gilded maze of Coimbra
There’s a whore with an umbrella
And you drank too many ports
That bottle was a flirt
The African with half a face
Flicks ashes into dirt
Your compass is unpeeling
It’s hanging upside-down
The sinister cafe
Sings another round
And the cobbled streets pursue you
There’s a beckoning pinched face
At the end of gilded walkways
They put alleys into place
The bridge lurches into water
To escape your leg’s embrace
And she smiles a cracked smile
The prostituted daughter
Ah, my Cerveira
I long for Lisboa
The sheets on the bed are clean
You’ll be my countess
I’m carved in your shore
Shall I escort you to the ring
Cerveira
Beijinhos
Cerveira
Cerveira
Beijinhos
Cerveira
In the crooked streets of Coimbra
There’s an envoy of the ages
He kisses alleys with his cane
His sulphur lips are faded
Read a sonnet to a countess
His raspy breath in tongues
She breathed the air so long ago
Lies underneath the stones
The crooked streets of Coimbra
Are the arts of a black widow
She folds you into orange blossoms
Cradling the middle
Like a stillborn torn and stumbling
Into cracked and risky pavement
My brain is singing fado fast
The alleyways are mumbling
Like a tavern or a monastery
Sorting out its miscreants
Misfits of these alleyways
Hardening the ambiance
Then here comes a dreamless night
Here comes a dreamless night
I’ll only dream of crooked streets
And maybe of Cerveira
Ah, my Cerveira
I long for Lisboa
The sheets on the bed are clean
You’ll be my countess
I’m carved in your shore
Shall I escort you to the ring
Aaah!
Cerveira!
Beijinhos!
Cerveira!
Aah!
Cerveira!