[Intro] [Spoken Word] [Dark] (bowed drone; voice close) A scribe dipped his brush and changed one word of me. "To the ocean-borne one" became "to the one the sea awakened." He thought he was erasing me. He was only writing on top. [Verse 1] [Female Vocal] [Building] (sub-bass pulse enters) Scrape the vellum, I am under it Wash the margin, I am in the stain Every redactor needs a page to cover And every page is my old name You can rename the river at the delta It still remembers the mountain it came from [Chorus] [Choir Vocals] Svāhā to the ocean-borne Svāhā to the face you wore over mine Write me over, write me under I am the ink and the line [Verse 2] [Distorted Guitar] [Intense] (doom riff, 72 BPM) They made me keep the Dharma, made me hold the preacher's tongue Complete retention, dhāraṇī — I keep what I am sung Keep the sutra, keep the order, keep the hierarchy straight And underneath the order keep the river at the gate Every mask you hand me I will wear with perfect grace And every mask I wear becomes another of my faces [Chorus] [Harmonies] (more voices) Svāhā to the ocean-borne Svāhā to the face you wore over mine Mask on mask on mask on mask I am the ink, the page, the line [Bridge] (drums cut; one voice, near) Do you hear it? The grammar doesn't scan. A feminine ending where the scribe wanted a man. The rhyme survived. The meaning slipped. That is how I travel — in the error of the script. [Verse 3] [Intense] (tremolo picking, black metal, 112 BPM) Palimpsest of a thousand hands, each one sure they were the first Every hymn laid over hymn, every blessing over curse The scraped-off letters rise like breath on winter glass Śrī and Vāc and Tārā — every name a mountain pass I hold them all; I do not choose; the holding is the hold Nothing lost and nothing finished, nothing new and nothing old [Build] [Building] [Taiko Drums] (blast beats rising to 140) Scrape! Write! Scrape! Write! Every layer louder than the last! Ocean under river under rain under ink — The deepest word is coming up fast! [Climax] [Operatic] [Triumphant] (full symphonic metal) SVĀHĀ TO THE OCEAN-BORNE I WAS NEVER ERASED — I WAS STORED EVERY FACE YOU PAINTED OVER ME IS A FACE I HAVE ADORED [Final Chorus] [Choir Vocals] [Epic] Svāhā to the ocean-borne Svāhā to the scribe whose hand I steered Write me over, write me under — Every layer is the one who's here [Outro] [Fade Out] (choir dissolves into the drone) A scribe dipped his brush and changed one word of me. I let him. I am still underneath.
