The strange young man who comes to me   A soldier on a three day spree   Who needs one night's cheap ecstasy   And a woman's arms to hide him      He greets me with a courtly bow   And hides his pain by acting proud   He drinks too much and he laughs too loud   How can I deny him?      Let us dance beneath the moon   I'll sing to you, "Claire de Lune'   The morning always comes too soon   But tonight the war is over      He speaks to me in schoolboy French   Of a soldier's life inside a trench   Of the look of death and the ghastly stench   I do my best to please him      He puts two roses in a vase   Two roses sadly out of place   Like the gallant smile on his haggard face   Playfully I tease him      Hold me neath the Paris skies   Let's not talk of how or why   Tomorrow's soon enough to die   But tonight the war is over      We make love too hard too fast   He falls asleep his face a mask   He wakes with the shakes and he drinks from his flask   I put my arms around him      They die in the trenches and they die in the air   In Belguim and France the dead are everywhere   They die so so fast there's no time to prepare   A decent grave to surround them      Old world glory old world fame   The old worlds gone gone up in flames   Nothing will ever be the same   And nothing lasts forever      Oh I'd pray for him but I've forgotten how   And there's nothing, nothing that can save him now   But there's always another with the same funny bow   And who am I to deny them      Lux aeterna, Luce-at e-is   Domine cum sanctic tu-is in aeternum   Qui-a pius es   Requiem aeternaum dona e-is Domine   Qui-a pius es   Tonight the war is over      Requiem aeternaum dona e-is Domine   Qui-a pius es   Et lux perpetua luce-at- e-is Cum sancris tu-is in   Aeternum qui-api-us es   Tonight the war is over