I’ll Be with You When the Deal Goes Down

In the still of the night, in the world’s ancient light,
Where wisdom grows up in strife;
My bewildered brain, tolls in vain,
Through the darkness on the pathways of life;
Each invisible prayer is like a cloud in the air,
Tomorrow keeps turning around;
We live and we die, we know not why,
But I’ll be with you when the deal goes down.

We eat and we drink, we feel and we think,
Far down the street we stray;
I laugh and I cry and I’m haunted by,
Things I never meant nor wished to say;
The midnight rain follows the train,
We all wear the same thorny crown;
Soul to soul, our shadows roll,
And I’ll be with you when the deal goes down.

The moon gives light and shines by night,
And I scarcely feel the glow;
We learn to live and then we forgive,
O’er the road we’re bound to go;
More frailer than flowers, these precious hours,
That keep us so tightly bound;
You come to my eyes like a vision from the skies,
And I’ll be with you when the deal goes down.

I picked up a rose and it poked through my clothes,
I followed the winding stream;
I heard the deafening noise, I felt transient joys,
I know they’re not what they seem;
In this earthly domain, full of disappointment and pain,
You’ll never see me frown;
I owe my heart to You, and that’s sayin’ it true,
And I’ll be with you when the deal goes down.

— Bob Dylan (Modern Times)