[Chanting Intro] (hey-ya, hey-ya) In the whisper of the pines, in the hollow of the night, Ancient breath is slowly turning into light, Voices circle in the dark where the old roots twine, Calling through the ages, crossing every line. (hey-ya, hey-ya, hey) Hear the drum of hidden earth in the breathing ground, Hear the silent ruins answering the sound. [Verse 1] I walked a dreaming road through endless tangled trees, Where every shadow bent and leaned on midnight breeze; Above my weary head the iron clouds would crawl, A heavy leaden tide across a paling wall. The wind was like a howl released on open stone, A raven carved the sky and circled all alone; The forest, like a sea, rose dark on either side, And hummed a solemn hymn that rolled in endless tide. [Verse 2] Through thickets thick as sleep I forced my fearful way, Until the branches broke and something cold lay grey: There in the dripping dark, low heaps of broken brick, With veins of moss and cracks, were gathered rough and thick. The shattered teeth of steps led downward to the stream, Where arches black and bare dissolved like half a dream, The stumps of fallen towers cut the distant gloom, Like watchful eyes of stone that marked a buried doom. [Verse 3] Slow coils of river fog wrapped halls in ghostly bands, Around the broken courts and cold, forsaken lands; The waves and woods were one, a faded, breathless sea, With columns lulled to sleep in pale obscurity. A strip of ashen dawn lay shivering and thin Between those granite ribs where suns had once poured in; The bay stretched out its arms, a steel and sightless plain, A lifeless mirror cast in dull metallic grain. [Pre-Chorus] Yet somewhere in that hush I felt a distant tread, As if my younger self once walked where ruins bled; A nameless, aching pull ran through my hidden core, As though these broken stones had held my heart before. [Chorus] Is this a waking dream, or echo from another life? I see the city shine, I hear its restless, vibrant strife; How can this silent waste be all that shall remain? I feel the forest breathe, it calls me by my name. [Chant Break] (hey-ya, hey-ya) (oh-hey, oh-hey-ya) [Verse 4] I cried, "It cannot be, I will not trust this sight! The newborn, shining streets still blaze with human light; There life and voices rise in restless, crowded streams, Yet here, a savage wood has swallowed all their dreams. It crowns the buried dust of towers that once burned, It stretches without end where every road has turned;" The distant murmur shook the branches overhead, A solemn forest voice that weighed my heart with dread. [Chanting Choir] (Deep forest, rising, ages turning) (Stone to root and flame to loam) [Choral Prophecy] "I am the patient earth, I am the waiting ground, I watched your iron hands strike sky and tear it down; Your burning tongues of war, your towers made of flame, Have fallen into hush and dust that bears no name. I raised my rolling green, my countless living bands, From midnight polar winds to sun-reflected sands; Against your brittle walls my living waves have run, Now see your mighty works lie scattered, come undone." [Chorus] But I refused that song, I would not bow or fade, I shouted through the leaves, defiant and afraid: "Our brightest inner fire no storm can ever drown, No forest, stone, or time will tear its meaning down. We hope and we endure, we love and we despise, We bleed in bitter wars, with open, burning eyes; We watch the works of years fall crumbling at our feet, Yet still we shape a path, our will does not retreat." [Bridge] "I’ll carve a daring road toward every distant flame, Through root and ash and fear, through ruin and through shame!" The pines in answer swayed with mocking, endless tone, They dipped and shook their heads above me, branch and bone; Their fingers, barbed and thin, reached out from every side, Like long and bony arms that would not be denied. [Arp Drop] (whispers) I tore myself ahead, in panic, blind and fast, Till terror cracked the dream and snapped its hold at last; I woke with pounding heart, and shadows fled the floor, The forest broke like glass and I could breathe once more. [Verse 5] With greedy, gasping joy I stumbled to the pane, And felt a childlike rush run singing through my veins; The world that I had scorned, so harsh the day before, Stood dear and strangely soft just outside my door. The damp and faded hush of early urban light, The ceaseless hum of crowds that filled the waking sight; Far factory whistles cried, long, hollow, low and clear, While wheels like distant storms rolled heavy in my ear. [Final Chorus] The sky above was dull, a cold and murky veil, But every thought of hate grew fragile, thin, and pale; The ones I held in scorn, whose lives I would not see, Rose up within my heart like saints that sheltered me. O, how I felt their warmth, so ordinary, near, So simple and so bright, their presence shattered fear; To stand and walk with them felt honest, plain, and tru
