Natalie Merchant - Carnival Lyrics

I've walked these streets
A virtual stage
It seemed to me
Make up on their faces
Actors took their places next to me

I've walked these streets in a carnival
Of sights to see
All the cheap thrill seekers
The vendors and the dealers
They crowded around me

Have I been blind? Have I been lost
Inside my self and my own mind
Hypnotized, mesmerized
By what my eyes have seen?

I've walked these streets
In a spectacle of wealth and poverty
In the diamond markets
The scarlet welcome carpet
That they just rolled out for me

And I've walked these streets
In the mad house asylum they can be
Where a wild eyed misfit prophet
On a traffic island stopped
And he raved of saving me

Have I been blind? Have I been lost
Inside my self and my own mind
Hypnotized, mesmerized
By what my eyes have seen?

Have I been wrong? Have I been wise
To shut my eyes and play along
Hypnotized and paralyzed by what my eyes have found
By what my eyes have seen, by what they have seen?

Have I been blind? Have I been lost?
Oh have I been lost?
Have I been wise? Have I been weak?
Have I been strong? Oh have I been strong?

Hypnotized and mesmerized
By what my eyes have found
By what my eyes have found
In that, that great street carnival

[Incomprehensible] have I been blind? Have I been lost?
Oh have I been lost?
Have I been wise? Have I been weak?
Have I been strong? Oh have I been strong?

If I've been hypnotized and mesmerized
By what my eyes have found
By what my eyes have found
In that, that great street carnival, in that carnival