The Schmuel Song Lyrics – Ben Platt

Read the full The Schmuel Song lyrics by Ben Platt from the album The Last Five Years along with the music video, song credits, release information and other details about the song. If you enjoy Ben Platt’s music, you can also explore The Next Ten Minutes and A Miracle Would Happen / When You Come Home to Me, two other songs by Ben Platt.

[JAMIE, spoken]
First, a story
New and unpublished
It’s a little Christmas story
I call it “The Story of Schmuel, Tailor of Klimovich”
Merry Christmas

[JAMIE]
Schmuel would work ’til half-past 10
At his tailor shop in Klimovich
Get up at dawn and start again
With the hems and pins and twist
Forty-one years had come and gone
At his tailor shop in Klimovich
Watching the winters soldier on
There was one thing Schmuel missed

“If I only had time,” old Schmuel said
“I would build the dress that’s in my head
A dress to fire
The mad desire
Of girls from here to Minsk
But I have no more hours left to sew”
Then the clock upon the wall began to glow

And the clock said
“Na na na na, na na na
Oh Schmuel, you get to be happy
Na na na na, na na na
I give you unlimited time
Na na na na, na na na
So Schmuel, go sew and be happy!”
But Schmuel said, “No, no, it’s not my lot
I gotta make do with the time I’ve got”

Schmuel was done at half-past 10
And he said, “Good night, old Klimovich”

Put on his coat to go, but then
The clock cried, “Wait! Not yet!
Even though you’re not wise or rich
You’re the finest man in Klimovich
Listen up, Schmuel—Make one stitch
And you’ll see what you can get!”

But Schmuel said, “Clock, it’s much too late
I’m at peace with life, I accept my fate”
But the clock said, “Schmuel
One stitch and you will
Unlock the dreams you’ve lost”

So Schmuel, with reluctance, took his thread
He pulled a bolt of velvet and he said
“I should take out my teeth and go to bed
I’m sitting here with talking clocks instead”

And the clock said
“Na na na na, na na na
Oh Schmuel, you get to be happy
Na na na na, na na na
I give you unlimited time
Na na na na, na na na
Just do it and you can be happy!”

So Schmuel put the thread through the needle’s eye
And the moon stared down from a starless sky
And he pushed the thread through the velvet black
And he looked and the clock was turning back!

So he grabbed his shears and he cut some lace
As the hands reversed on the old clock’s face
And his fingers flew and the fabric swirled
It was 9:15 all around the world!

Every cut and stitch was a perfect fit
As if God Himself were controlling it
And Schmuel cried, through a rush of tears
“Take me back! Take me back all forty-one years!”

And on it went, down that silent street
‘Til Schmuel’s dress was at last complete
And he stretched his arms and he closed his eyes
And the morning sun finally started to rise

And the dress he made on that endless night
Was a dress that would make any soul take flight
Not a swatch, not a skein had gone to waste
Every ribbon and button ideally placed
And sewn into the seams
Were forty-one seasons of dreams
Dreams that you could feel
Coming real

And that very dress, so the papers swore
Was the dress a girl in Odessa wore
On the day she promised forevermore
To love a young man named Schmuel
Who only one day before
Had knocked at her kitchen door

Plenty have hoped and dreamed and prayed
But they can’t get out of Klimovich
If Schmuel had been a cute Goyishe maid
He’d have looked a lot like you
Maybe it’s just that you’re afraid
To go out onto a limb-ovich
Maybe your heart’s completely swayed
But your head can’t follow through

But shouldn’t I want the world to see
The brilliant girl who inspires me?
Don’t you think that now’s a good time to be
The ambitious freak you are?
Say goodbye to wiping ashtrays at the bar
Say hello to Cathy Hiatt, big-time star!

‘Cause I say
Na na na na, na na na
Oh Cathy, you get to be happy
Na na na na, na
I give you unlimited time
Na na na na, na na na
Stop temping and go and be happy

Here’s a headshot guy and a new BackStage
Where you’re right for something on every page—
Take a breath
Take a step
Take a chance
Take your time

Have I mentioned today
How lucky I am
To be in love with you?