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Kismet
Music: Robert Wright + George Forrest
Lyrics: Robert Wright + George Forrest
Book: Luther Davis + Charles Lederer
Premiere: Thursday, December 3, 1953
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And This Is My Beloved

Dawn's promising skies
Petals on a pool drifting
Imagine these in one pair of eyes
And this is my beloved

Strange spice from the south
Honey through the comb sifting
Imagine these in one eager mouth
And this is my beloved

And when s/he speaks and when s/he talks to me
Music! Mystery!
And when s/he moves And when s/he walks with me
Paradise comes suddenly near

All that can stir All that can stun
All that's for the heart's lifting
Imagine these in one perfect one

And this is my beloved
And this is my beloved


Baubles, Bangles And Beads

Baubles, bangles,
Hear how they jing, jing-a-ling-a,
Baubles, bangles,
Bright, shiny beads.
Sparkles, spangles,
My heart will sing, sing-a-ling-a,
Wearing baubles, bangles and beads.
I'll glitter and gleam so,
Make somebody dream so,
That someday he may buy me,
A ring, ring-aling-a,
I've heard that's where it leads,
Wearing baubles and bangles and beads.


He's In Love

See him smiling,
Hear him humming,
He's in love!
Joyful, jaunty,
Dreaming dazzled
He's in love!
Stars have invaded his eyes.
Silver bells in his voice
Sing a hymn to the her he dreams of!
Watch him wooing,
Purring, cooing,
He's a dove!
Sighing, doting,
Flying, floating,
High a bove!
Though you're suspecting
It's April affecting him so,
No.
Can't be, can't be,
Not him, not he,
He's in love,
and it's really love,
Because I'm in love and I know!


Night Of My Nights

Play on the cymbal, the timbal, the lyre;
Play with appropriate passion.
Fashion songs of delight and delicious desire
For the night of my nights.
Come where the so well beloved is waiting,
Where the rose and the jasmine mingle
While I tell her the moon is formating
And 'tis sin to be single!
Let peacocks and monkeys in purple adornings
Show her the way to my bridal chamber,
Then get you gone 'til the morn of my mornings
After the night of my nights!
'Tis the night of my nights!
'Tis the night of my nights!


Not Since Nineveh

Baghdad!

South of the Garden of Eden!

North of the Gulf of Aden!

Where every man and maiden

Celebrates - Baghdad!

When or where
Could you compare
High life
To the life you find here?
Not since Nineveh, not since Tyre,
Not since Babylon turned to mire

For a sin of a kind we never mind here!


Where or when

Ever again
Low life
Like the life well known here?
Not since Nineveh, not since Sidon,
Not since Jericho started slidin'
From the din of a horn that's never blown here!


Our palaces are gaudier,
Our alleyways are bawdier,
Our princes more autocratic here,
Our beggars more distinctly aromatic here!


Where could you
Ever pursue
Your life
With the zeal we feel here?



Not since Babylon read that writing,
Not since Jericho heard that trumpet,
Not since Nebuchadnezzar's hanging garden went to pot,
Not since that town near Gomorrah got
Too hot

For Lot!
Not since Nineveh,
Not since Nineveh!


Sands Of Time

Princes come,
Princes go,
An hour of pomp and show they know;
Princes come and over the sands,
And over the sands of time they go.
Wise men come,
Ever promising the riddle of life to know,
Wise men come, Ah,
But over the sands.
The silent sands of time they go
Lovers come,
Lovers go.
And all that there is to know
Lovers know;
Only lovers know.


Stranger In Paradise

She:
Oh why do the leaves
Of the Mulberry tree
Whisper differently now
And why is the nightingale singing
At noon on the Mulberry bow
For some most mysterious reason
This isn't the garden I know
No it's paradise now
That was only a garden
A moment ago

He:
Take my hand
I'm a stranger in paradise
All lost in a wonderland
A stranger in paradise
If I stand starry-eyed
That's a danger in paradise
For mortals who stand beside
An angel like you

I saw your face
And I ascended
Out of the commonplace
Into the rare
Somewhere in space
I hang suspended
Until I know
There's a chance that you care

Won't you answer the fervent prayer
Of a stranger in paradise
Don't send me in dark despair
From all that I hunger for
But open your angel's arms
To the stranger in paradise
And tell him
That he need be
A stranger no more

She:
I saw your face
And I ascended
Out of the commonplace
Into the rare

Both:
Somewhere in space
I hang suspended

She:
Until I know

He:
Till the moment I know

She:
There's a chance that you care

He:
There's a chance that you care

She:
Won't you answer the fervent prayer
Of a stranger in paradise

He:
Don't send me in dark despair
From all that I hunger for

Both:
But open your angel's arms
To the stranger in paradise
And tell me that I may be
A stranger no more.




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