Delilah

“I saw the light on the night as I passed by her window.
I saw the flickering shadows of love on her blinds.
She was my woman.
As she deceived me I watched and went out of my mind.

Why, why, why, Delilah? My, my, my Delilah?
I could see … that girl was no good for me,
And I was lost like a slave that no man could free.

At break of day, as that man drove away, I was waiting.
I crossed the street to her house and she opened the door.
She stood there laughing.
I felt the knife in my hand and she laughed no more.

Why, why, why, Delilah? My, my, my Delilah?
So, before they come to break down the door –
Forgive me, Delilah, I just couldn’t take any more.”

These are the lyrics of a song made famous by Tom Jones in 1968. In terms of imagery, nothing else I ever read or heard comes close to this in density or intensity. This is poetry at its finest – a few words depict an image or a feeling or a situation that ordinarily would take pages to convey. Consider “the flickering shadows of love on her blinds.” Wow! I am not going to go into any details regarding this image, but just 4 words (plus a few articles and prepositions,) create a hell of an image.

Or consider the image of the aggrieved man, mad with jealousy, standing across the street in the dark, waiting for the guy who bested him to leave. Or the image of the laughing woman as she freezes when she sees the impending bloody end. Or the man begging his dead beloved for forgiveness while he waits for the sherif to arrive and break down the door, (because he has no intention of giving himself up.)

This American ballad from the sixties is the gold standard against which any lyrics should be measured. It was never given the credit it deserves.

The song is performed with the following chord sequence (Am-E-E7-A-A7-Dm) for the narrative, and the sequence (C-G7-B-F) for the chant.

Delilah

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مؤسسة ندى لحماية الفتيات