Down Before Cathay lyrics

Song information

Artist: The Incredible String Band
Album: No Ruinous Feud

Lyrics

Through red forests that lean against the hills
I wandered with my heart in my hand
My cloak wound down to the shores of cathay
Where the gold lay scattered on the sand
Night was young back before the dawn
Casting kisses at the day
Shipping the sea bestriding the earth
Down before cathay

The admirable deeds of khubla khan
We admired from the deck
Of our cedarwood ship
Observing the domes that prance from mandalay
Where the dogs they sleep all the day
We gazed upon the towers of tyre
That rose coarse and spicey in the air
But we sailed up the coast to sidon
Where the gazes are so rare
Where the gazes are so rare

The ship shone its lamp across the silent air
That swirled before cathay
And there on the sand that courts the amber sea
Our fair bodies we cast away
Night was young back before the dawn
Casting kisses at the day
Sipping the sea bestriing the earth
Down before cathay