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Cats remind us of
our skill at denial, too; "cute" does not
imply "vegetarian."
MACK THE
KNIFE*
Oh, the shark has pearly teeth,
dear,
And he shows them pearly white;
Just a
jackknife has MacHeath, dear,
And he keeps it out of
sight . . .
On the sidewalk, Sunday
morning,
Lies a body, oozing life.
Someone's sneaking round
the corner,
Could that someone be Mack the
Knife?
From a tugboat, by the river,
A
cement bag's dropping down.
That cement's just for
the weight, dear--
Bet you Mack is back in
town
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JACK THE CAT
Oh,
the lion roars so wild,
dear,
Terrifyin', night or day.
Jack the Cat
purrs oh, so mild, dear,
Still, he's lyin'-- in a
way.
In the back yard, by the oak
tree,
Five blue feathers on the
ground. . . .
What could that mean? Don't
ask Jacky;
He's off somewhere,
can't be found
In that bowl there, in
the corner,
There swim two, where once swam
three;
Has one cut school to play
hooky--
With our Jacky? Can that
be?
[ Etc. . . . ]
"Jack The Cat" copyright 1993, 2003 Brad Burg
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*The "original" here is the Blitzstein translation of
Brecht's German lyric. This is probably the best-known English
version, thanks to the landmark off-Broadway production of the 1950s, and
the pop recordings which thus used Blitzstein's lyrics (those of
Bobby Darin, Louis Amstrong, etc.)
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