Harem Life - Ирвинг Берлин, Carole FitzPatrick, Robert Barefield

While trav’ling through Turkey in my dreams

I chanced to stray

Right into a harem and it seems

They let me stay

I spoke to the Sultan’s favorite wife

Before I fled

I asked her how she liked harem life

Here’s what she said

Living in a harem, what a life

Ne’er a thought of care or strife

Waiting on the Sultan night and day

Ever ready to obey

He keeps me dancing morning, noon and night

Dancing fills 'im with delight

I am black and blue from the dance I do But outside of that ev’ry little thing’s all right

I wanted to know how many wives

The Sultan had

She answered each day a wife arrives

Fresh from Baghdad

How did he continue on that plan

So many years?

She answered «He's just a poor old man

With young ideas»

Eight of the Sultan’s wives are we And there are a whole lot more

Weekdays he marries two or three

And Sundays he marries four

He has a hundred agents who

Lead very busy lives

Keep him supplied with wives

And now we’ll tell in rhyme

Just how we spend our time

Ev’ry morning to his bed I bring his toast and tea

I prepare his bath for that’s the job he gave to me

I massage his brow because he likes my gentle touch

I then manicure his nails and never hurt him much

I bring him his slippers ev’ry evening after eight

I then fetch his cigarettes upon a silver plate

I arrange his bed at nine, he gets so sleepy then

I begin to dance and then he’s wide awake again

And then we all dance to the vision of Salome