곡을 고르면서 역시 제목이 중요해 하면서 골랐습니다.



폴 크루그만이 수잔 베가의 노래를 좋아한다는걸 처음 알게 된건 2008년 뉴욕 타임즈에 그가 쓴 짧은 글 때문이었는데, 그는 수잔 베가가 뉴욕 타임즈에 블로그를 운영한다는걸 알고는 놀라움을 표시하면서, 자신이 가장 좋아하는 가수라고 포스팅을 합니다. 그러면서 다음 생이 있다면, 송 라이터가 되어서 그녀에게 작품을 써 주고 싶고, 구글 스칼라에서 자신의 이름을 넣으면 뜨는 첫 페이지를 수잔 베가의 The queen and the soldier와 바꿀 용의가 있다라는 글을 올립니다.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/suzanne-vega/

폴 크루그만은 이후로도 그녀와 관련된 짧은 글들을 종종 올리곤 했고 작년에는 그녀와 같이 찍은 사진을 뉴욕 타임즈 자신의 블로그 그러니까 opinion 페이지에 올립니다.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/15/suzanne-vega-saturday-personal/

블로그라고 되어 있으니 딱히 뭐라고 하긴 뭐하지만, 다른 신문도 아니고 뉴욕 타임즈에 저렇게 올리는거 보면 좀 모자르게 보이기도 하고 좀 더 인간적으로 보이기도 해서 개인적으로 맘에 들더군요.

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저 개인적으로도 수잔 베가의 여러 노래중에서 가장 좋아하는 곡을 고르라면 이 곡을 꼽습니다. 가사가 참 맘에 들어요. 저 개인적인 해석은 자신의 욕망을 감추고 혹은 인지하고 있지 못하는 여인에 대한 이야기라고 받아들이고 있습니다.

The soldier came knocking upon the queen's door
He said, "I am not fighting for you any more"
And the queen knew she'd seen his face someplace before
And slowly she let him inside

He said, "I've watched your palace up here on the hill
And I've wondered who's the woman for whom we all kill
But I am leaving tomorrow and you can do what you will
Only first I am asking you why"

Down the long narrow hall he was led
Into her rooms with her tapestries red
And she never once took the crown from her head
She asked him there to sit down

He said, "I see you now and you are so very young
But I've seen more battles lost than I have battles won
And I've got this intuition, says it's all for your fun
And now will you tell me why?"

Well, the young queen, she fixed him with an arrogant eye
She said, "You won't understand and you may as well not try"
But her face was a child's and he thought she would cry
But she closed herself up like a fan

And she said, "I've swallowed a secret burning thread
It cuts me inside and often I've bled"
And he laid his hand then on top of her head
And he bowed her down to the ground

"And tell me how hungry are you? How weak you must feel
As you are living here alone and you are never revealed
But I won't march again on your battlefield"
And he took her to the window to see

And the sun, it was gold though the sky, it was gray
And she wanted more than she ever could say
But she knew how it frightened her and she turned away
And would not look at his face again

And he said, "I want to live as an honest man
To get all I deserve and to give all I can
And to love a young woman who I don't understand
Your highness, your ways are very strange"

But the crown, it had fallen and she thought she would break
And she stood there ashamed of the way her heart ached
And she took him to the doorstep and she asked him to wait
She would only be a moment inside

Out in the distance her order was heard
And the soldier was killed, still waiting for her word
And while the queen went on strangling
In the solitude she preferred, the battle continued on