| Standing alone by the edge of a river
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| He’s traded his life for a glass full of tears
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| The bargain was quick for one’s life is less dearer
|
| When the sand’s running out and the ending is near
|
| The ending is near
|
| The ending is near
|
| The ending is
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| The man climbed aboard and set sail for the ocean
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| He put on the mast all the canvas she’d take
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| Then laid himself down on the deck neath the tiller
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| The ship was his coffin this moment his wake
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| Runaway reasons
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| Runaway seasons
|
| Time is a treason
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| That I give back to you now
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| The wind touched the sail and the ship
|
| Moved the ocean
|
| The wind from the storm set the course she would take
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| From a journey to nowhere towards a soul on the ocean
|
| From the wake of Magellan to Magellan’s wake
|
| Runaway reasons
|
| Runaway seasons
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| Everything in it
|
| Hours and minutes
|
| You take tomorrow
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| Because it means nothing
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| To me
|
| To me
|
| To
|
| In the dark he heard a whisper
|
| Asking him to understand
|
| In the desert look for water
|
| On the ocean look for land
|
| In the dark he heard a whisper
|
| Asking him to understand
|
| In the desert look for water
|
| On the ocean look for land
|
| And there in the waves
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| Was a man in his grave
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| That he saw in the night
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| 'Tween the flashes of light
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| And he
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| Could not be there
|
| And all he had prayed
|
| Or had given away
|
| He now found to be wrong
|
| In the grip of the storm
|
| And he
|
| Could not be there
|
| Could you keep our lives together
|
| Safely back onto the shore
|
| Could you grant this last illusion
|
| Only this and nothing more
|
| Could you keep our lives together
|
| Safely back onto the shore
|
| Could you grant this last illusion
|
| Only this and nothing more
|
| And all at once the heavens bled their fire
|
| The anchor broke the chains they flew away
|
| And suddenly the waves were reaching higher
|
| And in the dark I thought I heard them say
|
| Could you keep our lives together
|
| Safely back onto the shore
|
| Could you grant this last illusion
|
| Only this and nothing more
|
| But what the sailor did not know
|
| And would never learn
|
| Was on that beach now far away
|
| The young child had returned
|
| And finding the broken hourglass
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| He reset it upright
|
| Then placed sand from the beach inside
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| And placed the lid on tight
|
| Then examining his handiwork
|
| He left it in the sand
|
| And then he quickly ran back home
|
| Thinking god would understand
|
| Everything I ever had for one more tomorrow
|
| Everything I ever had for just one more night
|
| And if this is not to be I pray could I borrow
|
| Just another final hour onto my life
|
| Did you ever really want to
|
| Did you ever really want to
|
| Lord, tell me how it will be
|
| Lord, tell me how it will be
|
| Standing once more by a boat on a river
|
| He pushes it off while he stays on the land
|
| And seeing the hourglass now so much clearer
|
| Which someone had refilled by hand
|
| And somewhere that boat’s now adrift on the
|
| Ocean
|
| The mast at full sail and there’s no one on board
|
| The hourglass no longer sits by the ocean
|
| Only his footprints all alone on the shore
|
| And soon they’re no more
|
| No more
|
| No more
|
| Now our story’s nearly over
|
| And we’ve reached the final scene
|
| But we’re sure that some have wondered
|
| What had happened in-between
|
| From the moment when the boy was saved
|
| And their boat had reached the shore
|
| Well, they talked about life and death
|
| And perhaps a little more
|
| The boy said he’d been a stowaway
|
| Aboard the «maersk dubai»
|
| When the captain had him thrown to the sea
|
| And left him there to die
|
| At this the old sailor had stood up
|
| His face now filled with rage
|
| And swore that he would never rest
|
| Until that captain had been caged
|
| But the boy implored the sailor
|
| That he not say a word
|
| Because he was an illegal immigrant
|
| And as of recently he’d heard
|
| That going to the authorities
|
| Could often be unwise
|
| When one’s paper were illegal
|
| The police just might not sympathize
|
| So when they reached the harbor
|
| With their journey at an end
|
| He left the boy on another ship
|
| Whose captain was a friend
|
| And when he saw it pull to sea
|
| And was once more all alone
|
| He leaned against the tiller
|
| And turned his ship back home
|
| Eventually he reached that beach
|
| He’d left the night before
|
| Then stepped a last time from the boat
|
| And waded to the shore
|
| Then the old man picked the glass up
|
| That he had left behind
|
| And headed for the small cafe
|
| For it was nearly time
|
| And the ocean watched him leaving
|
| To find his lady fair
|
| And as he left he heard her last words
|
| Drifting in the air
|
| That every man
|
| Is born you see
|
| Beneath the sword
|
| Damocles
|
| For young and old
|
| Are all alive
|
| On that next beat
|
| On which we ride
|
| And that beat is such
|
| A fragile thing
|
| In both old men
|
| Or youthful king
|
| And that beat
|
| Stands all alone you see
|
| Between us
|
| And black eternity
|
| And until that time
|
| When death won’t wait
|
| Let each man rage
|
| Against his fate |