Spanish is the Loving Tongue
(Charles Badger Clark, Jr.)

Spanish is the loving tongue
Soft as music, light as spray;
'Twas a girl I learned it from
Living down Sonora way.
I don't look much like a lover,
Yet I say her love words over.
Often when I'm all alone
"Mi amor, mi corazon"

Nights when she knew where I'd ride
She would listen for my spurs,
Fling the big door open wide,
Raise them laughing eyes of hers.
And my heart would nigh stop beating
When I heard her tender greeting,
Whispered soft for me alone ---
"Mi amor, mi corazon"

Moonlight on the patio,
Old senora nodding near,
Me and Juana talking low
So the Madre couldn't hear.
How the hours would go a-flyin!
And too soon i'd hear her sighin'
In her little sorry tone ---
"Adios, mi corazon."

But one time I had to fly
For a foolish gamblin' fight,
And we said a swift goodbye
In that black unlucky night.
When I'd loosed her arms from clingin'
With her words the hoofs kept ringin',
As I galloped north alone ---
"Adios, mi corazon."

Never seen her since that night,
I can't cross the line, you know.
She was Mex and I was white;
Like as not it's better so.
Yet I've always sort of missed her
Since that last wild night I kissed her;
Left her heart and lost my own
"Adios, mi corazon."

Originally titled A Border Affair
recorded by Dyer-Bennett
from Songs of the Great American West, Silber and Robinson
RG