Cygnus X-1 Book Ii: Hemispheres Lyrics

I. prelude

When our weary world was young

The struggle of the ancients first began

The gods of love and reason

Sought alone to rule the fate of man

They battled through the ages

But still neither force would yield

The people were divided

Every soul a battlefield ...

Ii. apollo: bringer of wisdom

'i bring truth and understanding

I bring wit, and wisdom fair

Precious gifts beyond compare

We can build a world of wonder

I can make you all aware'

'i will find you food and shelter

Show you fire to keep you warm

Through the endless winter storm

You can live in grace and comfort

In the world that you transform'

The people were delighted

Coming forth to claim their prize

They ran to build their cities

And converse among the wise

But one day the streets fell silent

Yet they knew not what was wrong

The urge to build these fine things

Seemed not to be so strong

The wise men were consulted

And the bridge of death was crossed

In quest of dionysus

To find out what they had lost ...

Iii. dionysus: bringer of love

'i bring love to give you solace

In the darkness of the night

In the heart's eternal light

You need only trust your feelings

Only love can steer you right'

'i bring laughter, I bring music

I bring joy and I bring tears

I will soothe your primal fears

Throw off those chains of reason

And your prison disappears'

The cities were abandoned

And the forests echoed song

They danced and lived as brothers

They knew love could not be wrong

Food and wine they had aplenty

And they slept beneath the stars

The people were contented

And the gods watched from afar

But the winter fell upon them

And it caught them unprepared

Bringing wolves and cold starvation

And the hearts of men despaired ...

Iv. armageddon: the battle of heart and mind

The universe divided

As the heart and mind collided

With the people left unguided
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For so many troubled years

In a cloud of doubts and fears

Their world was torn asunder

Into hollow hemispheres

Some fought themselves, some fought each other

Most just followed one another

Lost and aimless like their brothers

For their hearts were so unclear

And the truth could not appear

Their spirits were divided

Into blinded hemispheres

Some who did not figh

Brought tales of old to light

My 'rocinante' sailed by night

On her final flight

To the heart of cygnus' fearsome force

We set our course

Spiralled through that timeless space

To this immortal place

V. cygnus: bringer of balance

I have memory and awareness

But I have no shape or form

As a disembodied spirit

I am dead and yet unborn

I have passed into olympus

As was told in tales of old

To the city of immortals

Marble white and purest gold

I see the gods in battle rage on high

Thunderbolts across the sky

I cannot move, I cannot hide

I feel a silent scream begin inside

Then all at once the chaos ceased

A stillness fell, a sudden peace

The warriors felt my silent cry

And stayed their struggle, mystified

Apollo was atonished

Dionysus thought me mad

But they heard my story further

And they wondered, and were sad

Looking down from olympus

On a world of doubt and fear

Its surface splintered

Into sorry hemispheres

They sat a while in silence

Then they turned at last to me

'we will call you cygnus,

The God of balance you shall be'

The sphere: a kind of dream

We can walk our road together

If our goals are all the same

We can run alone and free

If we pursue a different aim

Let the truth of love be lighted

Let the love of truth shine clear

Sensibility

Armed with sense and liberty

With the heart and mind united

In a single perfect sphere