Dory Previn - The Empress of China Lyrics

I tell you how I hate you in the voice my father used
You answer with your mother's worn clichés
And in another life, your father hears his wife
And I see his fury blazing in your gaze

An echo hears an echo and my mother's fist is raised
The hand I clench at you shows her distrust
The way one behaves is determined in the graves
Of all the great grandparents gone to dust

Our fathers fight through us
As they fought their father's war
And the same old scene's repeated
As before and before and before
And before and before

And when I tell you how I hate you
Before the birth of Jesus
Before the death of Caesar
Before Siddhartha
Before Ulysses
Before the Trojan war

I tell you how I hate you
And a long decaying anger
Comes alive inside a castle
And behind an ancient door

The empress of chine
Tells her lover how she hates him
She tells him once more
And once more, and once more
And once more