Helen:
Nine years I've loved you
I can swear that my heart is true
Nine long years I've been suffering
While you have torn my soul in two
Menelaus and Helen:
Have you betrayed me? (Agamemnon cue)
All this time I've grieved silently
I adore you, can't you see?
Longing to be set free
Nine long years I've wasted on you
Nine long years you've wasted on me
Why go on?
I thought I knew you
Now I see that your heart is cruel
You must think I'm such a fool
False as the morning dew
Nine long years I've wasted on you
Nine long years you've wasted on me
How
How could I believe you loved me, too?
Nine years showed the real you.
Agamemnon:
Nine long years are lost
And if blood's the cost
How can I go on for longer? (Hector cue)
Battlefields strewn with damask frost cris-crossed
How can this be I?
Blood I can't deny
These years I've lost myself in
Nine long years that I've drowned myself in
Nine long years I've been hidden
Just who is this girl
From a different world,
Little damsel blessing me?
Why can't I hear her like she hears me–-clearly?
Did I fall in love
With this ghost girl?
Nine years and I've finally found her
Nine long years, can I love another--
This ghost-girl?
Hector:
And all this time blame is mine and mine alone
I'm the one who saved that firebrand
Nine long years in battles for him
Nine wasted years I've suffered for him
Time, bring us back that decade of our lives
Paris cost us life (Paris Cue)
Troy will pay his vice
Hmm-mmm.
And all this time blame is mine and mine alone
I'm the one who saved that firebrand
Nine long years in battles for him
Nine wasted years I've suffered for him
Time, give me back my life.
Paris:
Am I so vile?
Am I witless and nasty as I seem?
I'm heartful, too,
Human just like you
My heart as true
Somehow
Nine long years I've been in heaven
Nine long years you've been my leaven rise
Why am I despised?
(Editor's note: for the reader's convenience we have posted versions of the song, each with one of the melodies greatly amplified.)
Helen/Menelaus: