Esmeralda   I am esmeralda agrón, se? ora.   I know I've no right to speak.   My son is not the savage boy you see,   The cape, the sneer, the slicked-back hair   It hides the child I nursed and bathed, se? ora.   Please don't turn your eyes from me   Your son, gone to god, and mine to blame   My fated son,   He too is gone   The state will see to that, I am sure, se? ora   The state will see to that, I am sure.      1st mother   You spanish people, you come to this country   Nothing here changes your lives   Ungrateful immigrants asking for pity   When all of your answers are knives   This city makes a cartoon of a crime   Capes and umbrellas the glorification of slime   I have to face this horror, se? ora.      2nd mother   My religion   Asks me to pray for the murderer's soul   But I think you'd have to be   Jesus on the cross   To open your heart after such a loss   Can I forgive him?    Can I forgive him?    No, I cannot   Can I forgive him   No, I cannot      Friends become strangers   Compassion is hard to express in words   The trembling flowers they bring   Fear in the roots and the stem   What happened to me they know could happen to them.   Can I forgive him   No, I cannot   Can I forgive him   No      Esmeralda   Only God can say 'forgive'   His son too received a knife   But we go on, we have to live   With this cross we call our life      1st mother   Feels like a bomb fell   And wave after wave come the aftershocks      2nd mother   You can't believe that it's true   There must be some mistake   You drift through this nightmare from which you can't wake      Both mothers   Can I forgive him?    Can I forgive him,   No, I cannot      Can I forgive him?    Can I forgive him, no, I cannot      Can I forgive him?    Can I forgive him, no, I cannot      Can I forgive him   No, I cannot.            Lead vocal, acoustic guitar-paul simon   Recorded at paul simon's home