by Bob Dylan



In death, you face life with a child and a wife

Who sleep-walks through your dreams into walls.

You're a soldier of mercy, you're cold and you curse,

"He who cannot be trusted must fall."



Loneliness, tenderness, high society, notoriety.

You fight for the throne and you travel alone

Unknown as you slowly sink

And there's no time to think.



In the Federal City you been blown and shown pity,

In secret, for pieces of change.

The empress attracts you but oppression distracts you

And it makes you feel violent and strange.



Memory, ecstasy, tyranny, hypocrisy

Betrayed by a kiss on a cool night of bliss

In the valley of the missing link

And you have no time to think.



Judges will haunt you, the country priestess will want you

Her worst is better than best.

I've seen all these decoys through a set of deep turquoise eyes

And I feel so depressed.



China doll, alcohol, duality, mortality.

Mercury rules you and destiny fools you

Like the plague, with a dangerous wink

And there's no time to think.



Your conscience betrayed you when some tyrant waylaid you

Where the lion lies down with the lamb.

I'd have paid off the traitor and killed him much later

But that's just the way that I am.



Paradise, sacrifice, mortality, reality.

But the magician is quicker and his game

Is much thicker than blood and blacker than ink

And there's no time to think.



Anger and jealousy's all that he sells us,

He's content when you're under his thumb.

Madmen oppose him, but your kindness throws him

To survive it you play deaf and dumb.



Equality, liberty, humility, simplicity.

You glance through the mirror and there's eyes staring clear

At the back of your head as you drink

And there's no time to think.



Warlords of sorrow and queens of tomorrow

Will offer their heads for a prayer.

You can't find no salvation, you have no expectations

Anytime, anyplace, anywhere.



Mercury, gravity, nobility, humility.

You know you can't keep her and the water gets deeper

That is leading you onto the brink

But there's no time to think.



You've murdered your vanity, buried your sanity

For pleasure you must now resist.

Lovers obey you but they cannot sway you

They're not even sure you exist.



Socialism, hypnotism, patriotism, materialism.

Fools making laws for the breaking of jaws

And the sound of the keys as they clink

But there's no time to think.



The bridge that you travel on goes to the Babylon girl

With the rose in her hair.

Starlight in the East and you're finally released

You're stranded but with nothing to share.



Loyalty, unity, epitome, rigidity.

You turn around for one real last glimpse of Camille

'Neath the moon shinin' bloody and pink

And there's no time to think.



Bullets can harm you and death can disarm you

But no, you will not be deceived.

Stripped of all virtue as you crawl through the dirt,

You can give but you cannot receive.



No time to choose when the truth must die,

No time to lose or say goodbye,

No time to prepare for the victim that's there,

No time to suffer or blink

And no time to think.