Songtext Silver mantis Kris Kristofferson

Silver mantis

Seito lived in the canyon of the dragons Sashiko lived in the valley of the moon
They met along the highway to Aomeri where danger in the forest loomed

Shashiko dressed in silks and dreamed of heroes
She was carried in a hammock draped and veiled
Her father was a cruel and brutal warlord who fearful kept her in a shell

Seito he was but a lowly servant but his master knew him to be true and brave
When he happened on the scene of her education he sent her captors to their graves

Seito guarded Sashiko to her palace he had no thought of ransom to conceal
She took him in and washed his cuts and bruises and laid him softly down to sleep

When morning came she rose to tell her father
Of the stranger who had ruined the kidnap plot
But jealous and enraged her father seized him and chained him in the dungeon dark

Sashiko's tears flowed like the river Edo as she pleaded Seito's freedom face to floor
But the warlord turned his back and would not hear her
His mercy withered years before

When night fell she crept down into the dungeon
Two daggers hidden underneath her coat
And there they slept in death by harakiri her father's chains around them both