The Girl Who Slept for Scotland Lyrics

I tried to sleep upon my back so I could hold her all night long
As in my arms she slept, alas, but no I couldn′t
And when daybreak came I found her at the far side of the bed
I tried to wake her, tried to stir her, but she wouldn't
In her fug she lay like someone dead
And even when I′d tug her head
And press and nip and agitate and shake her
Or call her name or whisper it against her ear, my breath warm
There were no words in this universe would wake her
The girl who slept for Scotland
It took me time to comprehend this state of play extended
On to all her working, waking, shaking hours
For when she finally awoke deep in the day still she did sleepwalk
Like a hollow ghost afloat in haunted towers
And though she heard she didn't see
And though she saw she didn't hear
Attending only to what seemed precise and kind
For she was settled in her dream
A shopping list of small illusions
Pretty stories that she told her drowsy mind
The girl who slept for Scotland
Yet I remember a day by a river wild
When she clung to me hard like a darling child
And a night in the sheets of a Dublin bed
When she moaned like a woman and gave sweet head
When we sang in tongues together
And our synchronised guitars
Played music to the rafters
And made love among the stars
And our bodies beat like light
In love′s beautiful embrace
As her tiny kisses burst like popping suns around my face
But then drift, decline, collapse, the lights went out
She fell asleep again before my kiss-wet face was even dry
"I need another haircut," she′d say, talking in her sleep
The sleep-motes gathered in the dust-bowls of her eyes
She teetered down the road a piece
She and her man from cosy beds
They'd lent a junk shop with her sleeping clothes in sacks
And when I′d gone she teetered down the road again
Yawning as she went
And went and brought the bloody damn things back
The girl who slept for Scotland