Rosemary
Producers
Rosemary Lyrics
Do you remember when you walked with me
Down the street into the square?
How the women selling rosemary
Pressed the branches to your chest
Promised luck and all the rest
Put their fingers in your hair?
[Verse 2]
I had met you just the day before
Like an accident of fate
In the window there behind your door
How I wanted to break in
To that room beneath your skin
But all that would have to wait
[Chorus]
In the Carmen of the Martyrs
With the statues in the courtyard
Whose heads and hands were taken
In the burden of the sun
I had come to meet you
With a question in my footsteps
I was going up the hillside
And the journey just begun
My sister says she never dreams at night
There are days when I know why
Those possibilities within her sight
With no way of coming true
'Cause some things just don't get through
Into this world, although they try
[Chorus]
In the Carmen of the Martyrs
With the statues in the courtyard
Whose heads and hands were taken
In the burden of the sun
I had come to meet you
With a question in my footsteps
I was going up the hillside
And the journey just begun
[Post-Chorus]
And all I know of you
Is in my memory
And all I ask is you
Remember me
About
Rosemary, meaning like the herb. And it’s basically a song about wishing to be remembered which is, I think, a rather fitting way to end a retrospective.
Suzanne Discusses Tried and True Suzanne Discusses Each Song on Tried and True september, 1998
I was there for a couple of weeks in May of 1995, and yes, I did meet someone in that garden, though if anyone were to have watched the scene, nothing exciting happened – he was someone who lived in Granada, and he was showing me the town. That is, nothing happened on the surface.
[…]
El Carmen de los Martires is a garden near the Alhambra in the south of Spain, in Granada. It is one of many gardens near the main one. In this garden are statues of saints. Many (if not most) of them are missing their heads and their hands because people have stolen them. I guess they feel it brings luck to take these pieces of the statues home."
From Hugo Westerlund’s “Suzanne Vega FAQ” (
)From Guide to Granada; The ‘carmenes’ are a relic of Granada’s Arab traditions; houses with large kitchen plots and well-kept gardens that add a touch of color and of charming intimacy to the city’s fascinating panorama, especially in its higher areas. According to Ramon de Ayala’s definition, ‘The carmen’ is a closed garden, a hanging garden laid out in terraces, like those of Babylon. There is a dwelling in each one. A ‘carmen’ is in retreat; it has elements of a monastery and of a harem. They are sometimes very humble, like a Carthusian cell and orchard. But they are an epitome of peace, love and beauty; and in their tranquility, perhaps of restlessness.
From Hugo Westerlund’s “Suzanne Vega FAQ” (
)Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 1.Luka
- 2.Tom’s Diner
- 4.Caramel
- 5.99.9 F°
- 11.In Liverpool
- 12.Gypsy
- 13.Book of Dreams
- 14.No Cheap Thrill
- 15.Calypso
- 18.Penitent
- 19.Rosemary
