Can I Forgive Him Lyrics - Paul Simon

ESMERALDA 

I am Esmeralda Agr髇, Senora. 

I know I've no right to speak. 

My son is not the savage boy you see, 

The cape, the sneer, the slicked-back hair 

It hides the child I nursed and bathed, Senora. 

Please don't turn your eyes from me 

Your son, gone to God, and mine to blame 

My fated son, 

He too is gone 

The state will see to that, I am sure, Senora 

The state will see to that, I am sure. 

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1ST MOTHER 

You Spanish people, you come to this country 

Nothing here changes your lives 

Ungrateful immigrants asking for pity 

When all of your answers are knives 

This city makes a cartoon of a crime 

Capes and umbrellas the glorification of slime 

I have to face this horror, Senora. 

2ND MOTHER 

My religion 

Asks me to pray for the murderer's soul 

But I think you'd have to be 

Jesus on the cross 

To open your heart after such a loss 

Can I forgive him? 

Can I forgive him? 

No, I cannot 

Can I forgive him 

No, I cannot 

Photos 

Friends become strangers 

Compassion is hard to express in words 

The trembling flowers they bring 

Fear in the roots and the stem 

What happened to me they know could happen to them. 

Can I forgive him 

No, I cannot 

Can I forgive him 

No 

ESMERALDA 

Only God can say 'Forgive' 

His son too received a knife 

But we go on, we have to live 

With this cross we call our life 

1ST MOTHER 

Feels like a bomb fell 

And wave after wave come the aftershocks 

2ND MOTHER 

You can't believe that it's true 

There must be some mistake 

You drift through this nightmare from which you can't wake 

BOTH MOTHERS 

Can I forgive him? 

Can I forgive him, 

No, I cannot 

Can I forgive him? 

Can I forgive him, no, I cannot 

Can I forgive him? 

Can I forgive him, no, I cannot 

Can I forgive him 

No, I cannot.