Momus - The Cabinet of Kuniyoshi Kaneko lyrics

Leopards prowl the studios of the
Duc de Berry's great chateau
Where Cocteau's beast rehearses Beauty's rape
Lewis Carroll marks his diary with
A small white stone
As Kuniyoshi Kaneko prepares to paint

Listen to the shells my darling
What you hear is not the sea
But whispering, malicious human hearts
Adults who don't wish to know the
Duc de Berry's great chateau
And hate the world of childhood and of art

We who paint or photograph to stop
Your dying in it's path
And fix you in the permanence of spring
Can't stop the prattlers prattling
The rattlesnakes who, rattling
See ugliness in every living thing
See ugliness in every living thing

The calculated insolence of little
Girls in sailor suit's
Whose faces seem to say more than they know
Appetites and ornaments for the libertine
In all of us
From the cabinet of Kuniyoshi Kaneko

Follow to the studio where Alice
Liddell plays the roles
Of tousle headed naked gypsy girls
The Reverend Charles L dodgson from
The darkness of his camera
Preserves her for himself and for the world

Children torn by cruel desires
The handiwork of murderers
Who hack their little bodies to the bone
Somehow live to tell the tale
Astonishingly fit and well
They couple in the fabulous chateau

We who paint or photograph to stop
Your dying in it's path
And fix you in the permanence of spring
Can't stop the prattlers prattling
The rattlesnakes who, rattling
See ugliness in every living thing
In every lovely living thing

A looking glass is not a world
A painted girl is not a girl
In games there can be no forbidden things
In life remain considerate
In art the Devil's advocate
Why deny that Pegasus has wings
In life remain considerate
In art the Devil incarnate
Why deny the siren when it sings?
In games there must be no forbidden things

So watch the wall my darling
While the gentlemen go by
And mark your diary with a small white stone
Little hearts of marzipan and lacquer
Work from old Japan
In the cabinet of Kuniyoshi Kaneko