Db       Eb          Ab
I take a walk on the Seine,
           Db         Eb          Ab
Cross Pont Neuf on my way to St Germain.
               Db          Eb          Ab
Love-hearts on padlocks on wire in the mist,
      Db           Ab       Eb7         Fm
Where young lovers kiss and swear to be true.
          Eb           Ab       Eb7          Fm
Echoes of ten thousand signs of love, and yet I
     Db       Eb         Ab
Feel only the absence of you.


[Verse]
Db         Eb            Ab
Out of the window on the thirtieth floor,
Db            Eb              Ab
Central park shines with the coming of dawn.
        Db             Eb        Ab
Through eyes rendered weary by jet-lag and wine,
        Db       Ab             Eb7        Fm
I turn ‘round to find there’s a girl in my room
      Eb        Ab            Eb7          Fm
For a moment we kiss, but her vodka-soaked lips
      Db           Eb         Ab
Taste only of the absence of you.


[Chorus]
Ab      Fm
I don’t know
                 Cm
What all of this means
               Db   Eb   Db
If you are not here with me.
    Ab   Fm
And I am lost
             Cm
When we are apart,

There’s a hole in my heart,
                  Db
That light passes through.

And the pattern it creates is the shape of
               Ab
The absence of you.


[Verse]
                Db             Eb         Ab
Spring has been found hanging ‘round Soho square,
              Db        Eb             Ab
So I take my coffee and newspaper there,
               Db              Eb     Ab
To bask in the not warm enough April sun
         Db          Ab          Eb7           Fm
With the workers who come to eat Pret with no shoes.
        Eb           Ab          Eb7             Fm
But the grass to the side of the patch where I’m lying
   Db            Eb         Ab
Is flat with the absence of you.


[Chorus]
Ab       Fm
I don’t know
                 Cm
What all this is for
               Db   Eb Db
If you are not near to me.
    Ab       Fm
And I cannot sleep.
            Cm
Sleep is no fun

If the unruly sun,
                Db
Will reveal the truth,

A space in my bed as cold as the dead,
                                                  Ab
Exactly the size and the shape of the absence of you.


[Outro]
             Cm
More of this beauty runs over and through me
                   Db
And pools round my shoes.

And the puddle it forms
                                         Ab
Conforms to the shape of the absence of you.