[Verse 1] Five rivers cut the land from Tibet down slow Irrawaddy, Salween, Mekong in the glow Red River, Chao Phraya draw their own lines mountains made the borders and the borders made the signs [Pre-Chorus] Water writes the roads through the paddies and the stone every bend a kingdom every flood a throne [Chorus] Water made us, water made us water made us, pull us home Water made us, water made us through the rivers and the foam Mekong on my tongue Malacca in my bones Water made us, water made us never just one coast [Verse 2] Mekong rises high where the cold peaks burn four thousand nine hundred and it still keeps turning Yunnan to Laos then Thailand on the edge Cambodia to Vietnam with the delta at the end Tonle Sap flips when the wet winds come lake turns like a mirror and the fish run numbing [Pre-Chorus] Angkor held the floods with its canals of gold stone stayed in the temples but the water took control [Chorus] Water made us, water made us water made us, pull us home Water made us, water made us through the rivers and the foam Mekong on my tongue Malacca in my bones Water made us, water made us never just one coast [Bridge] Sixty-five kilometers and the world leans in India to East Asia same tide, same skin Srivijaya counted then Malacca too Portuguese, Dutch, British all came trying to rule Singapore at the mouth where the trade winds kneel geography keeps score and it cashes what it feels [Final Chorus] Water made us, water made us water made us, pull us home Water made us, water made us through the rivers and the foam Mekong on my tongue Malacca in my bones Water made us, water made us Asia in the flow [Outro] Monsoon by monsoon we remember how the sea, the lake, the river made the map somehow
