[Verse 1] I am Apsu, the first deep, the sweet water under all names. Before the reed huts, before the crowns, before the noise of waking mouths, I was there, still as a sealed bowl, old as the first dark breath. They call me origin. They call me father. They call me the water that does not ask. My dominion is hush. My dominion is depth. My dominion is the hidden current that feeds the banks and the roots and the dreaming places. I do not shine like the day gods. I do not climb like flame. I stay beneath the world, bearing it up without applause. [Pre-Chorus] Listen, when the surface trembles, I remember my own name. When the younger ones stir, I feel the world turn loud. But I was here first. I was here first. I was here before the first complaint. [Chorus] Apsu, deep water, Apsu, deep water, I was here first. Apsu, deep water, Apsu, deep water, I carry the first night. [Verse 2] My spouse is Tiamat, the salt vast, the sovereign sea with the mouth of storms. Together we are not a tale for children. We are the first pairing, the old undoing and the old embrace, the brine and the spring, the weight below the world and the hunger around it. From our joining came the elder line, the first brood, the crowded beginning, names that multiply like foam. I am father to the first gods, not by ornament, not by ceremony, but by the simple law of depth. Some say I am gentle. Some say I am stern. Both are true in the same dark basin. [Pre-Chorus] I gave them room. I gave them life. I gave them the silence to become loud. But room can be crowded. Life can become a clamor. Even the deep can grow tired of being split by footsteps. [Chorus] Apsu, deep water, Apsu, deep water, I was here first. Apsu, deep water, Apsu, deep water, I carry the first night. [Bridge] I do not hate creation. I am creation before it learned to boast. I do not envy the young. I only know the ache of being used as a foundation and called invisible. Hear me as I am: not monster, not ruin, but the oldest shelter, the sleeping source, the father beneath the flood. [Final Chorus] Apsu, deep water, Apsu, deep water, I was here first. Apsu, deep water, Apsu, deep water, I carry the first night. Apsu, deep water, Apsu, deep water, remember my name.
