Название альбома

Dead men? They’re dead! What can they achieve? Will I hurt, or fear, or wipe my eyes on my sleeve? They’ve no honour to sell, no more lies to tell All dead men can do is to give me gold. My victories yield just a moment’s joy; My sword-arm’s strength is a child’s toy; But the gold I gain proves I’ve not lived in vain – At death my legacy should be my gold. But the sea-rats will snatch it all when I am dead All the gold I have from my chest, clothes, head, Bleeding me white as I bleed out my life Do you think they’ll remember it’s my gold? Who’ll remember I was strong? Who’ll remember I was bold? Who’ll sing my songs when my corpse is cold? In drunken brothel-play they’ll fritter it all away Doesn’t matter – it’s just dead man’s gold!

I saw, flying upward, to the sky’s strand, Under a marred moon, yellowed, lonely, maimed, The souls I killed, slaughtered with my own hand Their ship a fallen star, her timbers flamed, They fled her moaning hulk to boundless sea By Moon-lady guided, by her path aimed At the high stead, as death’s scythe set them free Shining in triumph, in joy ascending, The ship set down, a witness against me Testimony that weighed me, my gaze bending Down to the water, sees, lighting its deep, Souls there too, on their road without ending Too heavy the weight; horror and guilt keep My eyes staring nightlong, at souls that shone Above, below, denying my heart sleep Many ships burned, many crimes come and gone But never, since that one, unblinded night Have shene souls danced for me their malison The blindfold I tied again, fearing light Might tempt me from the broad way chosen long – What saint am I by day! What saint by night! But a still small voice murmurs right and wrong, Hope and despair; poems come, unmarred, whole, On the Moon-lady’s path; I pay in song. The phrases fit, rhyme, metre play their role, Amazement shakes the pen that sets them down – But can a wretch like me still have a soul? Yet I choose not the fading, laurel crown! I can not, will not, may not, shall not alter! A pirate always, till I hang or drown! But still again, again, my heart will falter; A marred moon gleams, a poem’s murmurs play: Is my free choice merely a donkey’s halter? Whose fool am I by night? Whose fool by day?

Once I sang a funny song to you A merry song and fair Of five white ships a-sailing on the breeze And you listened to the music of my hand on my guitar And you felt the lure of undiscovered seas Chorus: Ahoy! Ahoy! I’m a pirate boy! You’re so fair you sent my bearings in a whirl! Ahoy! Ahoy! I’m your pirate boy! You’re my treasure beyond measure, you’re my girl! Yes, you listened and you wondered, but You didn’t understand How the words could wake so deep within your mind How the music of an old guitar could touch your very soul With a beauty long-forgotten, undefined Chorus But I still have one more song to sing An ancient song and wise But it takes a heart like yours to grasp it’s true It’s the song that every boy has sung from Time’s first night and day That my heart is singing now because of you Chorus Now I want to tie the knot with you ‘cos I know you’re my dream And I know you won’t be happy till it’s done, When we’re safe inside our harbour home I’ll show you all the world, For the world is nothing next to what we’ve won! Last Chorus: Ahoy! Ahoy! I’m a pirate boy! It’s the day to sail away from war and strife! Ahoy! Ahoy! I’m your pirate boy! You’re my treasure beyond measure, you’re my life!

My eyes encountered you that day In a land of blinding light I sang a song, a merry song, Though my tears were glistening bright I saw you standing in the crowd Arms crossed, silent and still In that bright light your eyes stared out – Never blinked and never fell Your single gaze burned through my soul To depths I’d never known Doomed me to scorn all other hope My old life overthrown Your eyes betrayed your hero’s soul Your worth in all you do – My Light-starer! My Light-starer! I’d face the world with you! Your deeds so great for good and ill Through all the world they’re known Their rumours fly, their echoes spread – Reach even my far home And every echo makes me dream, Imagining your way And are your eyes still burning bright Your soul still pure as day? Oh how I yearned in peace or war To be your comrade true – My Light-starer! My Light-starer! I’d face the world with you! But onward rolled the circling years To that sad, hopeless day When I put on my wedding chains Threw hopes of swords away I drowned my life in housework’s swamp No footing could I find Except – that nameless memory! My hero held my mind Unloved, my husband crushed my heart Each child my failure’s shame But each I raised and taught to be Like you, your hero’s fame Now death – I hear it – at the door My wasted years – how few! My Light-starer! My Heart-bearer! I’d face the dark with you!

Wise are my deeps, dark my coldness; One I have sought, a warrior-poet – Not thou, seeker! No swordwight thou, No wise maker of the world’s song, But a wild passion in thy pure breast Hefts thy young soul; my heart trembles Foreseeing thy death, myself thy bane, Fate inescapable. The folk I see, Hungry for fame, heart-slaved, mind-slaved, Their shining lust by lich-light drawn To the candle-flame of coveted pride, Burn gloriously in battle with me – Not thou! Not thou! No gleam-grabber thou! Not thou! Not thou! No war-drum’s beat Dances for thee! No dern magecraft, No snake-syllables with sophistry snare Thy unmarred soul; my timeless chill Warms with thy touch; no woning in thee For cold sin's taint; tears openly scape Thy meek eyelids; thy mind soft clad, Thy heart borne low, hands widely spread, Scorning to bully or beat down others, Opens to truth, to all truth’s source, Each listening mind; thy light their praise. One day thy cause shall call thee hither, Facing my hero with failing power; His part, his lot, thy life to shend On that day forelaid, thy loss, thy doom.

To the outer world, domain of cruelty, No warmth I yield, no due from my hot core; An outcast spirit my true security - Ill upon ill my gift, as herebefore When I was born, my fire, my heart-light glowed Red through my dark volcanic glassy skin: My frame, my prison, body, and abode - My truth; hot fire in hard obsidian. In the outer worlds, domains of cruelty, No love I find from folk in either realm. Have you the courage to take hold of me? And in that throng of foes be overwhelmed? No miser I, no niggard hoarding gold; To you, whose brave heart or whose mind insane This challenge takes, I will repay ten-fold: A world I’ll give to you, in fief and main! A human life a ripple is in the stream; A thrush’s song, a snowflake in the spring. My bearers fly, forgotten as a dream At dawn; and I forgotten lingering. So has it been, but now a promise sure, Wrought by a sage, of immortality For you, my bearer-youth, my end, my cure, My heart-beat’s beat, my own eternity So take me, boy, your panoply of war, Take me, your deathlessness, your hope, your crown, Take me, and rule the world you’re destined for, Take me, your power, your Hot Obsidian.

For ever gone I am lost in this smoke past knowledge Teaching no one The cities eternally burn The mind-fires fade Grass has long hidden the ruins For one I prayed Two come at last; I am answered… In silence trapped In the cell of the Smoky Obsidian Day in night wrapped, Prisoned, drowned in its fume-darkness I speak for it To the coming long prayed-for, long hoped-for I speak for it Through its silence, my ever-whispering flame The smoke sheds tears Hiding nothing, neither truth nor reality Three thousand years Naked I’ve waited, displayed, powerless. My time again? If it only could! I would choose otherwise I could plead then To my teacher: forgive, understand me. The past is gone And the sins of the fathers are laid On the children. It’s always the children who suffer. The mind-fires fade Grass has long hidden the ruins For one I prayed Two come at last; I am answered…

From long ago, from days of old The Grey Tower guards the world Where snow from northern mountains cold Through open windows swirled Hark! The winds are singing Howling, loud and shrill, Hark! The winds are bringing Sad news and chill Unsleeping, o’er the wide world’s spread The Grey Tower keeps its stand Again, again its stern lord sped To some far distant land Hark! The winds are singing Howling, loud and shrill, Hark! The winds are bringing Sad news and chill From southern realms with promise good He heard the warm wind blow; He’d meet again the one he loved So many years ago Hark! The winds are singing Howling, loud and shrill, Hark! The winds are bringing Sad news and chill And yet though oft some troubles draw Them near, but still apart, Their key of happiness is no more – No meeting there of heart Hark! The winds are singing Howling, loud and shrill, Hark! The winds are bringing Sad news and chill

What are we going to do? Are you my blessing or my curse? I, a hero? Not true! Although you think me one – and that is worse. My heart’s crushed to the floor; I daren’t say aloud what I’ve become Your fire, so hot, so pure; Let me warm myself, despite the ills I’ve done. Ills I have done. My scars prove Heart-darkness lies deep past measure – Yet like you I love Saturdays, the days that give you joy and pleasure. The funny songs you sing, Your tender lips, so soft, so hot, Your tender fingers cling Just as if I were honest – which I’m not. I’m sick beyond all cure; My broken wing can’t beat the air; I must hold you no more; Release you where the wind and sun are fair… From truth my eyes I’ll blind, Pretend you loved me – such a lie! Once you thought me kind – That’s what I’d want to be remembered by.

May can bring rain, May can bring snow, May can bring anything, anything at all! So come on, lad, why not let go! Fly, a joyful bird, at your own call! The thoughts that are dancing in your brain, Unsought, ominous, uncontrolled, Are they the problem, lad, is that dance to blame For your heart feeling so cold? Are they the problem? I wish I grasped The cause, what fault in me, what woe Made Spring die, leaving me grounded, lost In this bitter, clagging blanket of snow. I’ve conjured Winter, in thought and act; Its invocation freezes my soul – But no oath I’ll break, no word retract, Though I howl with pain for cold But still I can hope; I can lift my eyes Past the snow-veil, high to the sky again Where look! A bright star shines! Even though it is snowing in May! May can bring rain, May can bring snow, May can bring anything, anything at all – Even death… …on the snow, See, a bird’s sprawled corpse, starved with cold

Across the border, even the best maps Have nothing left to say A void where stars sleep, flickering, The Moon’s haven by day. Across the border, across the border – The end. Nothing moves on. Water drains down into darkness, Earth is sliced off and gone. Far off, in darkness, shining myriads of stars hang overhead. I chose my path, and held to it, when Across the border it led. Crossing the border changed me, to them I grew ugly, a repulsive goon – Not all at once – in separate stages, Measured, phased like the Moon. The days once were when handsome I seemed! My future filled with hope! When at my zenith, with the strength I’d dreamed, I crossed the border

Hail, Kangassk Del-Emer! Hail the young mage! Our song we sing to thy great praise! May ne’er chill winter touch Thy brave heart’s fire May nothing quench it all thy days! Hail Kangassk Del-Emer! May thy heart’s fire E’er light thy path through every dark! Alway its flame blaze forth ‘Gainst all thy foes Consume their rage with a single spark! Hail Kangassk Del-Emer! Sword of the sands! Each deed, each word thy greatness showed! What lucent star has drawn So young, so great A mage by such a thorny road? Hail Kangassk Del-Emer! Over Iven The skies are clear, and by thine hand! No heart but thine alone The true right has To wear a soothstone in this land!

We act as daft as a pantomime dame, In our own dreams lost. We sense the end of the tale approaching, Spring for frost. Each day is trading more hours from night Winter’s hair’s greyed. Little by little the nights are shrinking, Their wings fade. Dreams that float from a dandelion flock Almost to ground. A hero lifts sword at an innocent soul - I face him down. Dreams come for free, given, not stolen, No case for assize. An executioner in his antique armouring Lowers his eyes. Lowers his eyes as he lowers his hand - No writ for his blade. The dreams drift on, flutter skywards, Dandelion parade. But in the short days, the long nights when Executioners reign Let not the guiltless a penalty pay For their dreams’ pain. Each day is winning more hours each night From the night’s score. This, the third winter, is warmer still Than the two before. We’ll choose to stay in the time when birds On sight were shot. When the darkness sparked with glittering dust Of Light’s sad lot. We’ll choose to stay in that time, for Fate We can’t fight. Don’t pity us, call to us - when day comes We switch off the lights. I’ll be switched off after the Light wins Forever to sleep. Duty done, my body will slough off its being All guilt drowned deep. I’m born an executioner – Night Fills me to the brim. Yet always I’ve loved the Light so much It’s lured me in.