The Sire of Sorrow (Job's Sad Song)
Joni Mitchell
Let me speak
Let me spit out my bitterness
Born of grief and nights without sleep
And festering flesh
Do you have eyes?
Can you see like mankind sees?
Why have you soured and curdled me?
Oh you tireless watcher
What have I done to you?
That you make everything I dread and everything I fear
Come true?
Once I was blessed
I was awaited like the rain
Like eyes for the blind
Like feet for the lame
Kings heard my words
And they sought out my company
But now the janitors of Shadowland flick their brooms at me
Oh you tireless watcher
What have I done to you?
That you make everything I dread and everything I fear
Come true?
Man is the sire of sorrow
I've lost all taste for life
I'm all complaints
Tell me why do you starve the faithful?
Why do you crucify the saints?
And you let the wicked prosper
You let their children frisk like deer
And my loves are dead or dying
Or they don't come near
We don't despise your chastening
God is correcting you
Oh and look who comes
To counsel my deep distress
Oh these pompous physicians
What carelessness
Oh all this ranting
All this wind
Filling our ears with trash
Breathtaking ignorance
Adding insult to injury
They come blaming and shaming
Evil doer
And shattering me
This vain man wishes to seem wise
A man born of ashes
Oh you tireless watcher
What have I done to you?
That you make everything I dread and everything I fear come true?
We don't despise your chastening
Already on a bed of sighs and screams
And still you torture me with visions
You give me terrifying dreams
Better I was carried from the womb straight to the grave
I see the diggers waiting
They're leaning on their spades
Man is the sire of sorrow
Sure as the sparks ascend
Where is hope
While you're wondering what went wrong?
Why give me light
And then this dark without a dawn?
Evil is sweet in your mouth
Hiding under your tongue
Show your face
What a long fall from grace
Help me understand
What is the reason for your heavy hand?
You're stumbling in shadows
You have no name now
Was it the sins of my youth?
What have I done to you?
That you make everything I dread and everything I fear come true?
Oh your guilt must weigh so greatly
Everything I dread and everything I fear come true
Man is the sire of sorrow
Oh you make everything I dread and everything I fear come true