[Verse 1] Stone hemisphere, the jaguar pacing slow A slit of light, the warden lowers rope I lost the count of years inside this dark My body learned the posture of the dead [Verse 2] They burned the pyramid, they broke my bones The idol fell; my silence did not break Then came the need to ransom time with meaning I reached into my shadow for a name [Pre-Chorus] The mountain fades, the river shifts its bed The stars betray the shapes they used to hold But on the fur, the spots remain, the spots remain [Chorus] Fourteen words, forty syllables of flame Written on the living skin of jaguars A formula that no one needs to say A single word, and all things are said [Verse 3] I dreamed a grain of sand upon the floor I slept again and then the grains were three They filled the cell, I drowned beneath the weight A voice said: you have woken to a dream [Bridge — building, ecstatic] I saw the Wheel — not here, not there, but everywhere Made of water, made of fire, infinite Every thread of every cause entwined And I was one, and he who broke me — one [Chorus] Fourteen words, forty syllables of flame Written on the living skin of jaguars A formula that no one needs to say A single word, and all things are said [Outro — dissolving, near-whisper] I know the words… I will not speak them now The man I was has ceased to be my name Let the mystery die with me in the dark Who has seen the universe forgets himself [aside] que muera conmigo el misterio
