[Suzanne's perspective is a parent that sings to his or her child]
"You'd like to protect people from the things that are out there, but you can't always, so it's better to teach them how to see the dangers and the bad things, and to deal with them and not pretend that they don't exist. That's a problem with a lot of people in America. You don't allow yourself to feel things as complexly as human beings can feel them." The Cutting Edge of Folk from Bullet In Flight, originally published in Clockwatch Review Volume 4, No. 2, 7-14-87/8-9-87 by Ronald J. Rindo and James Plath http://www.suzannevega.com/about/1987/clockwatch.htm

From the "Solitude Standing" album liner notes:
Inspired by the poem "Juan Gris" by Paul Eluard
Translation by Winifred Radford
Published in Francis Poulenc "The Man and his Songs" by Pierre Bernac/Editions Gallimard
W. W. Horton and Company Inc. (U.S.) 1978
Victor Gollancz Ltd. London (U.K.) 1978

The original Paul Eluard poem:
De jour merci de nuit prends garde
De douceur la moitié du monde
L'autre montrait rigueur aveugle

Aux veines se lisait un présent sans merci
Aux beautés des contours l'espace limité
Cimentait tous les joints des objets familiers

Table guitare et verre vide
Sur un arpent de terre pleine
De toile blanche d'air nocturne

Table devait se soutenir
Lampe rester pépin de l'ombre
Journal délassait sa moitié

Deux fois le jour deux fois la nuit
De deux objets un double objet
Un seul ensemble à tout jamais