Spanish is the Loving Tongue

"Spanish is the Loving Tongue" is a song based on the poem "A Border Affair" written by Charles Badger Clark in 1907. Clark was a cowboy poet who lived throughout the American West, and was named the Poet Laureate of South Dakota in 1937. The poem was set to music in 1925 by Billy Simon.[1]

Over the years, the song was recorded by many top recording artists, including Bob Dylan, Ian and Sylvia,[2] Tom Paxton, Judy Collins,[3] Marianne Faithfull, Strawbs, Emmylou Harris, The Hootenanny Singers (in an arrangement by Björn Ulvaeus), Bill Staines,[4] Michael Martin Murphey and The Chad Mitchell Trio (under the name "Adios, mi Corazon").

Spanish is the lovin' tongue

Soft as springtime, light as spray

There was a girl I learned it from

Living down Sonora way

Now I don't look much like a lover

Yet I say her love words over

Late at night when I'm all alone

"Mi amor, mi corazon"

There were nights when I would ride

She would listen for my spurs

Fling that big door open wide

Raise those laughing eyes of hers

And how those hours would get to flyin'

Pretty soon, I'd hear her cryin'

"Please don't leave me all alone

Mi amor, mi corazon"

Then one night I had to fly

I got into a foolish gamblin' fight

I had a swift goodbye

In that black unlucky night

And traveling north, her words kept ringing

And every word I could hear her singing

"Please don't leave me all alone

Mi amor, mi corazon"

Well, I ain't never seen her since that night

I can't cross the line now

She was Mexican, and I was White

Like as not, it's better so

And yet I've always sort of missed her

Since that last wild night I kissed her

I left her heart, but I lost my own

"Mi amor, mi corazon"

References

1. "Spanish Is the Loving Tongue". secondhandsongs. Retrieved 2020-04-20. This work is often misattributed as "traditional". The poem was originally published as "A Border Affair" in the June 1907 issue of "Pacific Monthly". It was republished in 1915 by Chapman & Grimes as part of a compilation of Clark's works entitled "Sun and Saddle Leather".
2. "Spanish Is a Loving Tongue Lyrics". Lyrics.com. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
3. "Judy Collins Spanish Is the Loving Tongue". Retrieved 2020-04-20.
4. "Spanish Is a Loving Tongue - Bill Staines". AllMusic. Retrieved 2020-03-26. Album - Just Play One More