My Mother Bore Me

[Phantom]
My mother bore me in the southern wild
I live in darkness but my soul is light
Light as the forehead of an English child
But I'm in darkness and bereaved of light

My mother taught me underneath a tree
And sitting down before the heat of day
She took me on her lap and kissed me
And pointing to the east began to say

"Look upon the rising sun. There God does live
And gives his light and gives his heat away
And all the trees and flowers and beasts and men
Receive their comfort from the morning through the bright noon day

"And we are put on Earth a little space
That we may learn to bear the beams of love
And these poor bodies and this ravaged face
Are but a cloud, and like a shady grove

"For when our souls have learned the heat to bear
The clouds will vanish, we will hear His voice saying
Come out from the grove, My love and care
And around My golden tent like lambs rejoice"

Thus did my mother say and kissed me
And thus I say to little English boy
When we are both from light and dark clouds free
And around the tent of God we both rejoice

I will shade him from the heat
Till he can bear to lean in joy upon our father's knee
And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair
And be like him, and he will then love me

Voices in my night will cry Christine
And every drop of rain that falls
Will be Christine

You are the only one
My only chance of happiness
My golden leaf of autumn
My Christine

Look within this heart of mine, Christine
The very constant soul and music, of Christine
Behind this mortal mask
This terror of a face conceals
The gesture and the grace of you, Christine

No one else must ever have Christine
If not for me you'd be for no one else, Christine
If I am guilty, I'd be guilty of
An innocence whose name is love

And never, no never will you ever be
For anyone else and except for me
I damn you when I love
And I love you and I damn you
My Christine!