Oh, what a ball! Movement and music at its height,
Hearts pounded in three beats instead of two.
Besides, the ladies ask the gentlemen tonight
To dance the breathtaking white waltz, as is traditional to do.

Although your dancing’s nothing much to say,
You had resolved to ask her, long before,
But duty’s always pulling you away -
A call for help, a summons off to war.

Now, after you’d been dreaming of the chance,
She, drawing ever closer and more real,
Herself comes to invite you to this dance,
And your own blood in triple time you feel.

You seemed calm and cool In the din of the ball
But we couldn’t be fooled By your shade on the wall
As it shuddered and shattered and leapt in the light Of the candles aflame.
And gently holding on, and wildly whirling on,
There isn’t even a knife edge you could not lead her along -
Why then do you stand there alone, As if not knowing your name?

 
 
 
 

The ladies’ waltz - a fitting ending to all doubt,
A culmination to young dreams and whims and games:
Today the ladies called their partners out -
No, not for lack, no, not for lack of courage in the same.

We are promoted to the ladies for one day,
Our minds are whirling with the waltz, as years before.
But duty’s always pulling us away -
A call for help, a summons off to war.

Whirl on, white waltz, much whiter than the snow
So that the snowfall won’t end before the sound...
She came to ask you if to life you’d go,
And you were whiter than the waltz, or walls around.

You seemed calm and cool In the din of the ball
But we couldn’t be fooled By your shade on the wall
As it shuddered and shattered and leapt in the light Of the candles aflame.
And gently holding on, and wildly whirling on,
There isn’t even a knife edge you could not lead her along -
Why then do you stand there alone, As if not knowing your name?

 
 
 
 

In wardrooms, or in schools, or palace halls
Wherever luck would chance the ball to be that night,
In Russia, ladies asked the gentlemen to waltz,
To the white waltz, through all of time, and everything around was white.

With downcast eyes, seeing nothing else at all,
Through silence, desperation, and despair,
Our women come to help us when we call,
Their ballroom stretched across land, sea and air.

Wherever you may disappear or fly,
Smile at the memory of this waltz, how white you burned...
She’ll wait for you, even from sea and sky,
And ask you to the dance when you return.

You seemed calm and cool In the din of the ball
But we couldn’t be fooled By your shade on the wall
As it shuddered and shattered and leapt in the light Of the candles aflame.
And gently holding on, and wildly whirling on,
There isn’t even a knife edge you could not lead her along -
Why then do you stand there alone, As if not knowing your name?