Love Is Just a Four‐Letter Word Songtext
von Joan Baez

Seems like only yesterday I left my mind behind
Down in the Gypsy Cafe with a friend of a friend of mine
Who sat with a baby heavy on her knee
Yet spoke of life most free from slavery
With eyes that showed no trace of misery
A phrase in connection first with she occurred

That love is just a four-letter word

Outside a rattling storefront window
Cats meowed to the break of day
Me, I kept my mouth shut, to you I had no words to say
My experience was limited and underfed
You were talking while I hid
To the one who was the father of your kid
You probably didn′t think I did, but I heard

You say that love is just a four-letter word


I said goodbye unnoticed, pushed forth into my own games
Drifting in and out of lifetimes, unmentionable by name
Searching for my double, looking for
Complete evaporation to the core
Though I tried and failed at finding any door
I must have thought that there was nothing more absurd

Than that love is just a four-letter word

Though I never knew just what you meant
When you were speaking to your man
I can only think in terms of me and now I understand
After waking enough times to think I see
The holy kiss that's s′pposed to last eternity

Blow up in smoke, it's destiny
Falls on strangers, travels free
Yes, I know now, traps are only set by me
And I do not really need to be assured

That love is just a four-letter word

Strange it is to be beside you, many years the tables turned
You'd probably not believe me if told you all I′ve learned
And it is very, very weird indeed
To hear words like "forever" plead
So ships run through my mind, I cannot cheat
It′s like looking in a teacher's face complete
I can say nothing to you but repeat what I heard

That love is just a four-letter word