Ich grolle nicht, und wenn das Herz auch bricht,
Ewig verlor’nes Lieb! Ich grolle nicht.
Wie du auch strahlst in Diamantenpracht,
Es fällt kein Strahl in deines Herzens Nacht.
Das weiß ich längst.

Ich grolle nicht, und wenn das Herz auch bricht, 
Ich sah dich ja im Traum,  Und sah die Nacht in deines Herzens Raum,
Und sah die Schlang’, die dir am Herzen frißt,
Ich sah, mein Lieb, wie sehr du elend bist.

I bear no grudge, even when my heart is breaking!
Love lost forever! I bear no grudge.
Although you shine in diamond splendor,
No beam falls into the night of your heart.
I will know that for a long time.

I bear no grudge, and when my heart is breaking!
I truly saw you in my dreams
And saw the night in the room of your heart,
And saw the snake that bites your heart;
I saw, my dear, how truly miserable you are.

Lyrics by Heinrich Heine
Music by Robert Schumann 

Performed by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Alfred Brendel

And she said, “Honey, take me dancing”
But they ended up by sleeping in a doorway
By the bodegas and the lights on Upper Broadway.
- Paul Simon, “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”

As a child, whenever I heard this song, I always imagined some lovely Mexican villa, with women rocking babies in their arms wrapped in colorful linen while men softly strummed guitars in the moonlight. You can imagine my disappointment when, upon moving to New York, I discovered that a bodega was really just what we in the Midwest would call a “convenience store.”