Sarah Brightman - Stranger in paradise

Take my hand
I'm a stranger in paradise
All lost in a wonderland
A stranger in paradise
If I stand starry-eyed
That's the danger in paradise
For mortals who stand beside an angel like you

I saw your face ascending
Out of the common place and into the rare
Now somewhere out in space I hang suspended
Until I'm certain that there's a chance that you care

Won't you answer this fervent prayer
Of a stranger in paradise
Don't send me in dark despair
From all that I hunger for
But open your angel's arms
To this stranger in paradise
And tell him that he need be
A stranger no more

Aah-aah-aah

Take my hand
I'm a stranger in paradise
All lost in a wonderland
A stranger in paradise
If I stand starry-eyed
That's the danger in paradise
For mortals who stand beside an angel like you

I saw your face as I ascended
Out of the common place and into the rare
Now somewhere out in space I hang suspended
Until I'm certain that there's a chance that you care

Won't you answer this fervent prayer
Of a stranger in paradise
Don't send me in dark despair
From all that I hunger for
But open your angel's arms
To this stranger in paradise
And tell him that he need be
A stranger no more

A stranger no more

Music & lyrics: Robert Wright, George Forrest, Alexander Glasunow, Nikolai A. Rimsky-Korsakoff, Alexarder Borodin, adapted by Frank Peterson, Sarah Brightman

From: Harem (2003).

Source of the lyrics: thanks to Christian Colding and Attila, with several corrections by me and Mark Bliss and Sergio Pérez.
 

Notes on the origin of the song

The melody of Stanger in Paradise comes from Alexander Borodin's epic opera "Prince Igor", where it certainly has no dance beat to it. The original is named "polovetsian dances" (choral dances). What Sarah is singing is from the 1953 Broadway show Kismet, where Robert Wright, George Forrest adopted Borodin's music to show songs.

The song Prince Igor by Warren G. featuring the Norwish soprano Sissel -- released worldwide some years ago -- has a melody that is the same as Sarah's Stanger in Paradise. Almost all of the lyrics in the version of Warren G. are in English and are sung by Warren, but four lines are sung several times by Sissel:

Russian lines  
Uletaj na kryl'jach vetra
Ty v kraj rodnoj, rodnaja pesnja nasha
Tuda gde my tebja svobodno peli
Gde bylo tak privol'no nam s toboju

These lines are in Russian; in English they read something like this:

Fly away on the wings of wind
To the homeland, my dear song,
To the land where we can sing you freely,
Where it was so carefree for you and me.
The song from the opera "Prince Igor" is like a person, one of the singing girls in the opera. They are sending their friend (the song) to the homeland with the signs of nostalgia about freedom and peace. This is represented by "sing you freely" in the third line.
In the original, the song is a choral, so it should be "our dear song" (2nd line) and "for you and us" (4th line), but the given lines sound better in English and are correct when a single persion is singing, as in Sissel's case.

Thanks to Sergio Pérez, Sergey, Olga, Vladimir Laritchev and Herman for info, corrections and help with the translation.

Sissel has an official website: http://sissel.net/. It mentions an album called "Prince Igor The Rapsody" (1997), giving the above four lines; the lyrics are certainly nowhere near Sarah's song.

 
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created: 4 May 2003
last modified: 10 January 2009