The Dead Can Dance/Quotes

For reference, the Henri Cazalis poem Danse Macabre

Zig, zig, zig, Death in cadence,
Striking a tomb with his heel,
Death at midnight plays a dance-tune,
Zig, zig, zag, on his violin.
The winter wind blows, and the night is dark;
Moans are heard in the linden trees.
White skeletons pass through the gloom,
Running and leaping in their shrouds.
Zig, zig, zig, each one is frisking,
You can hear the cracking of the bones of the dancers.
A lustful couple sits on the moss
So as to taste long lost delights.
Zig zig, zig, Death continues
The unending scraping on his instrument.
A veil has fallen! The dancer is naked.
Her partner grasps her amorously.
The lady, it's said, is a marchioness or baroness
And her green gallant, a poor cartwright.
Horror! Look how she gives herself to him,
Like the rustic was a baron.
Zig, zig, zig. What a saraband!
They all hold hands and dance in circles.
Zig, zig, zag. You can see in the crowd
The king dancing among the peasants.
But hist! All of a sudden, they leave the dance,
They push forward, they fly; the cock has crowed.
Oh what a beautiful night for the poor world!
Long live death and equality!

---

One night, stormy and full of thunder,
You hear a rumbling from the grave
When suddenly the ground is torn asunder
And the dead begin to wave.

It's the night! Night of the dancing dead!
It's the night! Night of the dancing dead!

They rise up from the world down under
And you stop and stare as in a trance
You eyes grow big as with wonder
As all of them begin to dance.

It's the night! Night of the dancing dead!
It's the night! Night of the dancing dead!

They mambo, tango, shimmy and shake
They do the foxtrot, quickstep, jive
Twirling around at their own wake
Dancing, staying not alive.

It's the night! Night of the dancing dead!
It's the night! Night of the dancing dead!

--Zed Word Jamboree, "Night of the Dancing Dead":

Carpals, tarsals, vertebrae, that's us clicking on parade
I move without any muscles, my skull's a cavernous hall

Tendons are made for pulling, my friend, I don't need them at all!

—Skeletons on Parade, Ludo