"Epilogue: You And I / The Story Of Chess" lyrics - BENNY ANDERSSON

[THE RUSSIAN:]
Knowing I want you
Knowing I love you
I can't explain why I remain
Careless about you

[FLORENCE:]
I've been a fool to allow
Dreams to become
Great expectations

[THE RUSSIAN:]
How can I love you so much
Yet make no move?

[THE RUSSIAN/FLORENCE:]
I pray the days and nights
In their endless weary procession
Soon overwhelm
My sad obsession

You and I
We've seen it all
Chasing our hearts' desire
But we go on pretending
Stories like ours
Have happy endings

[THE RUSSIAN:]
You could not give me
More than you gave me
Why should there be
Something in me
Still discontented

[FLORENCE:]
I won't look back any more
And if I do
Just for a moment

[THE RUSSIAN:]
I'll soon be happy to say
I knew her well

[THE RUSSIAN/FLORENCE:]
But if you hear today
I'm no longer quite so devoted
To this affair
I've been misquoted

You and I
We've seen it all
Chasing our hearts' desire
But we go on pretending
Stories like ours
Have happy endings

[The Story of Chess]

[CHOIR:]
Each game of chess
Means there's one less
Variation left to be played
Each day got through
Means one or two
Less mistakes remain to be made

[GROUP 1:]
Not much is known
Of early days of chess
Beyond a fairly vague report
That fifteen hundred years ago
Two princes fought
Tough brothers, for a Hindu throne

[GROUP 2:]
Each game
Of chess
Means there's
One less
Variation
Left to be played

[GROUP 2:]
The mother cried
For no one really likes
Their offspring fighting to the death
She begged to stop the slaughter
With her every breath
But sure enough one brother died.

[GROUP 1:]
Each day
Got through
Means one
Or two
Less mistakes
Remain to be made.

[GROUP 2:]
Sad
Beyond belief
She told her winning son
"You have caused such grief
I can't forgive
This evil thing you've done."

[GROUP 1:]
And then
Such grief
Beyond belief
She said
She could
Not [?]

[GROUP 2 & 3:]
He tried to explain
How things had really been
But he tried in vain
No words of his
Could mollify the queen.

[GROUP 1:]
Tried
In vain
[?] to explain
[?]
[?]

[GROUP 2:]
And so he asked
The wisest men he knew
The way to lessen her distress
They told him he'd be
Pretty certain to impress

[GROUP 1:]
He asked
Wise men
How to
[?]
Her [?]

[CHOIR:]
By using model soldiers
On a checkered board
To show it was his brother's fault
They thus invented chess

[MALE SOLOIST:]
Chess displayed
No inertia
Soon spread to Persia
Then west.

[GROUP 2:]
Each game of chess
Means there's one less
Variation
Left to be played

[GROUP 2:]
Next the Arabs
Refined it
Thus redesigned, it
Progressed.

[GROUP 1 & 3:]
Each day got through
Means one or two
Less mistakes
Remain to be made.

[GROUP 3:]
Still further west
And when Constantinople
Fell in 1453
One would have noticed
Every other refugee
Included in his bags a set

[GROUP 2:]
Once in the hands
And in the minds of leading figures
Of the Renaissance
The spirit and the speed
Of chess made swift advance
Through all of Europe's vital lands

[GROUP 2:]
Where we must record
The game was further changed
Right across the board
The western touch
Upon the pieces ranged.

[GROUP 3:]
Each game of chess
Means there's
One less
Variation
To be played

[CHOIR:]
King, and queen, and rook
And bishop, knight, and pawn
All took on the look
We know today
The modern game was born

[GROUP 1 & 3:]
And in the end
We see a game
That started by mistake
In Hindustan
And boosted in the land
By what is now Iran

[CHOIR:]
Become the simplest
And most complicated
Pleasure yet devised
For just the kind of mind
Who would appreciate this
Well-researched, and fascinating
Yarn

[FLORENCE:]
This is an all too familiar scene

[THE RUSSIAN:]
Hopeless reflections on what might have been

[THE RUSSIAN/FLORENCE:]
From all sides the incessant and burning question:

[FLORENCE:]
"Bearing in mind your predicament now

[THE RUSSIAN:]
What you did then

[THE RUSSIAN/FLORENCE:]
We're just dying to know would you do it all again?"

[CHOIR:]
Each day we get through means one less mistake
There for the making

[THE RUSSIAN/FLORENCE:]
But they know full well
It's not hard to tell
Though my heart is breaking
I'd give the world for that moment with you
When we thought we knew
That our love would last
But the moment passed
With no warning, far too fast

You and I
We've seen it all
Chasing our hearts' desire
But we go on pretending
Stories like ours
Have happy endings