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lyrics

AURELIA - GERARD DE NERVAL

During the night my delirium grew worse and more so in the early hours when I found that I was tied down. I succeeded in freeing myself from the straightjacket and towards morning walked about the various wards.

I had the idea that I had become like a god, possessed of powers of healing, so that I put my hands on some of the patients. Going up to a statue of the Virgin I took off its crown of artificial flowers in order to test the powers in me.

I walked in long strides, talking in an animated way of the ignorance of men who believed they could be cured by science alone, and seeing a bottle of ether on a table I drank it in one gulp.

A hospital assistant, with a face I compared to an angel’s, tried to top me, but I was supported by neurotic strength and , just as I was about to overthrow him, I stopped ad told him he did not understand my mission.

Doctors came along then and I went on with my harangue on the impotence of their art. Then, though I had no shoes on, I went down the stairs and, coming to a garden, I went out and picked flowers there, strolling about on the grass.

One of my friends had returned to fetch me. So i left the garden and, while I was speaking to him, they thrust me into a straightjacket and made me get into a cab and I was taken away to an asylum outside Paris.

As soon as I found myself among the insane, I realized that everything had been an illusion for me until then. However, the assurances that I attributed to the goddess Isis seemed to realize themselves by a series of trials to which I had to submit. So I accepted them with resignation.

credits

from Broken Soldier: Live at the Valley Forge Remembrance Society's Summer Reading Events, released August 1, 2018

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Broken Soldier Portland, Oregon

Broken Soldier is a one-man band. A fictional duo featuring Jeff Betz and his nameless companion known only as The Soldier.

Together they create works of musical fiction that purport to be Live performances but which are in fact home recordings made in a small studio apartment in Portland, Oregon.

Jeff Betz: Vocals, Guitars and all other instruments and Field Recordings. ... more

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