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Einhard gather near... come hither to my bedside |
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The hour that I must retire is drawing ever near |
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From the exigencies of this life |
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My deeds laid out before your eyes |
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And my conscience must be clear. |
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Charles my dear son the time has now come |
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The House of Arnulf had produced the heir and son |
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To lead the faithless where we are all waiting for you now |
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In the eternal kingdom where we at last are one. |
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Finally you can look back upon your many great deeds |
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Like your fathers before you have been planted the seeds |
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The consummation of your ancestors' ambitions |
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The founding of a great empire of Christian nations. |
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Father, this oath I swear that I shall fight to keep the Lord |
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In all of Francia and beyond |
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To heathen fields and Saxon hordes |
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Who would tread upon a sacred place of ours? |
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Shall learn to fear the name of Charlemagne |
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One that will be without peer even long after I have gone |
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Charlemagne, oh Charlemagne |
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A shaft of light in a Dark Age |
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For now he is the King of the Franks |
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Standing tall above men of all ranks |
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Homage and tribute to him will pay |
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And all his enemies shall be cast away |
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'Cause now he has inherited the throne |
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The young prince who soon came into his own. |
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Carloman, my dear brother, we grew apart |
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But my love for you did not depart. |
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You let the plotters turn your head against me |
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And then... oh father! Now he is dead... |
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How his widow and children weep by his bed |
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Now I am ruler of all your empire |
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And I am... alone in the adventure |
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But you came to me, father, |
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I feel not on my own |
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And guided me on my sword |
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As sure as on my throne. |
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And now you are being besieged by the Saracen, |
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But holding firm are the Christian Kings of Spain |
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The Frankish might pushed them back south |
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'Cross the mountains to form the Spanish March. |
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And what of the other pagan tribes |
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Who disrespected His Holy See? |
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They knelt before him and gave back that |
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Which they had taken from The Holy City. |
