Lyrics David Sylvian

David Sylvian

Manafon

There's a man down in the valley

Who doesn't speak in his own tongue

He bears a grudge againt the English

The tune to which his songs are sung

There's a man down in the valley

Who is moving back in time

It's a physical ascension

You can watch him as he climbs

The farmers' wives are at their windows

They've seen him wind his way for hours

They tell the kids to lower their voices

And pretend that they are out

There's a man down in the valley

Trying to stop time in its tracks

His boots lie heavy on the grasses

But it keeps on pushing back

And his wife, she was a painter

But now she stains the altar black

He's out bird-watching on the islands

And she wishes he'd come back

There's a man down in the valley

And he dreams of moving west

Of battles raged against the Furies

That might see him at his best

There's a man down in the valley

Don't know his right foot from his left

Don't know his right foot from his left