1. |
Prelude
01:21
|
|||
2. |
||||
Piece by piece
Day by day
Season by season
Year by year
Sawing and reaping
Drudging and building
Gaining wealth
From sweat and tears
Honest effort
Honest reward
Nurtured by pride
Of the own work
Every man
Is the artisan
Of his fortune
Of his dreams
When your life's work shines in splendour
When you receive your just reward
When you're filled with deepest satisfaction
Your hands have turned sweat and dust into purest gold
The playing children
The smiling woman
The well-fed servant
The laughing maid
The neighing horses
The golden fields
The grazing cattle
The well-filled granary
Harsh land transformed
Into fertile soil
Wild nature's heart
Tamed by the plough
A kingdom build
On rocky ground
Filled with riches
From the long hard years of sacrifice
|
||||
3. |
||||
This cloudy morning promised nothing good
Icy wind carried rumors of war to my ears
No battle ever brought anything good
To this land, to these people - only death and tears
Sullen riders came from far behind the hills
To proclaim the orders of the ruthless king
Oppressive taxes and the seizure of our supplies
To feed the thousands who march into their demise
Domini, reges, cleptae
Domini, reges, cleptae
This world is a chessboard for masters and kings
But just a snake pit for their serfs and slaves
We pay for their madness with our silver and blood
For their schemes and greed we kill each other an get buried in mud
Domini, reges, cleptae
Domini, reges, cleptae
I clench my fist and raise it to the sky
To curse the mighty men and their ignorance which never dies
They have their swords, I have only bitter words
They steal my pride and goods and I watch how gold turns to rust
Brutally awoken from the illusion
That man forges his own destiny
Cause when it stands, your life's construction, with it's rivets' blinding shine
The greed of the mighty ones will be the rust that eats it all
From rich to poor in the blink of an eye
Life's perfection never seemed so fragile
All those years of diligence – swallowed by the tyrants' greed
Crowned rats who steer our fortune, a shameless breed!
Crowned rats!
Filthy thieves!
|
||||
4. |
The Bitter Chalice
05:38
|
|||
Born into a world of unconcern
Pain, deprivation and misery – unknown
All streets seem to be paved with gold
„Just take one of a thousand opportunities, luck is with you if you work hard enough“
Your golden cage it feels so save
But it can't withstand any flood of sorrow
The sun that always shines is just a weak flame
And the calm you take for granted is just the eye of the storm
Rise up to the sky
Embrace the sun til your dreams are burned away
Fall down to the ground
Inhale the dust of life's insignificance
Rise up to the sky
Save yourself from the rat race down below
Fall down to the ground
To build a monument of dead dreams' bones
Paralysed when disaster strikes
A black cloudy monolith is crushing your dreams
You never looked behind the veil of shallow comfort
Where misfortune lurked – now it mangles your faith and your courage to face life
|
||||
5. |
Alchemy of Sorrow
03:16
|
|||
one lights thee with his flame, another
puts in thee — Nature! — all his gloom!
what says to this man: lo! the tomb!
cries: life and splendour! to his brother.
o mage unknown whose powers assist
my art, and whom I always fear,
thou makest me a Midas — peer
of that most piteous alchemist;
for 'tis through thee I turn my gold
to iron, and in heaven behold
my hell: beneath her cloud-palls I
uncover corpses loved of old;
and where the shores celestial die
I carve vast tombs against the sky.
- Charles Baudelaire, 1857 / Lewis Piaget Shanks, 1931 -
|
Streaming and Download help
If you like Ruins Of The Past, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp