Well, a diamond fades quickly When matched to the face of Maria All the harps they sound empty When she lifts her lips to the sky All the brown of her skin Makes her hair seem a soft golden rainfall That spills from the mountains To the bottomless depths of her eyes She stands all around me Her hands slowly sifting the sunshine All the laughter that linger Down deep 'neath her smilin' is free Well, it spins and it twirls Like a hummingbird lost in the morning Then caresses the south wind And silently sails to the sea As softly she wanders I'll desperately follow her footsteps And I'll chase after shadows That offer a trace of her sigh They promise eternally That she lies hidden within them But I find they've deceived me And sadly I bid them goodbye So, the serpent slide softly away With his moments of laughter And the the old washer woman Has finished her cleanin' and gone The bamboo hangs heavy In the bondage of quicksilver daydreams And a lonely child longingly Looks for a place to belong