I learned in school That I was mad if they were sane, you see They had to beat me black and blue They said it hurt them more than me But I learned who were my enemies and I learned who were my friends I learned to read between the lines When I was 10 I´d do anything to get out of school Away from the teacher´s stick To shoot streetlamps with my slingshot Smoke cigarettes and get sick Steal apples in September Fight shadows in green June Or just sit and smell the burning leaves Of an autumns´s afternoon Of an autumns´s afternoon Once I met a mad girl As she came hopping through the furze Her clothes all stuck with fluff and stuff Bearded barley and bristly burrs and I was high among the branches green and she, she hadn´t seen me there As she went shuffling with her shadow and snatching at the air Wild weeds, wilting Were twined all in her curls and I could tell by her mad blue eyes She was a mad girl She was thin as any sparrow Her song it had no tune Just scuffling through the piney glades Of a summer´s afternoon Of a summer´s afternoon I came dropping through the branches down She started round in surprise and fear I don´t know what I had to say But something I knew she had to hear She picked up a piece of flint Drew back her arm and flung it high Not a bad throw that cut my cheek Just below the eye Mad girl, mad girl Before you ran away I knew you were as mad as me and as sane as a summer´s day Mad girl, mad girl We both were wrong again You took me for an anemy and I took you for a friend I took you for a friend