Nightwish

art
"I'll be with you soon, my Shalafi"
Grey Havens my destiny

Master!...

Silvara
Starbreeze

Sla-Mori the one known only by Him
To august realms, the sorcery within
If you hear the call of arcane lore,
your world shall rest on Earth no more
A maiden elf calling with her cunning song
"Meet me at the Inn of Last Home"
Heartborne will find the way!

Master!...

Wishmaster
Crusade for Your will
A child, dreamfinder
The Apprentice becoming...

Master!...


2. Sacrament Of Wilderness

Naked in midwinter magic
Lies an angel in the snow
- The frozen ficure crossed by tracks of wolves
An encounter, symbolic, yet truthful
With a hungry choir of woods
An agreement immemorial to be born

Dulcet elvenharps from a dryad forest
Accompany all charming tunes
of a sacrament by a campfire
A promise between the tameless
and the one with a tool
Tonight the journey from cave begins

I want to hunt with the tameless
I want to learn the wisdom of mountains afar
we will honor the angel in the snow
We will make the streams for our children flow

Wrapped in furs beneath the northern lights
From my cave I watch the land untamed
And wonder is some becoming season
will make the angel melt in shame

[Repeat chorus]


3. End Of All Hope

It is the end of all hope
To lose the child, the faith
To end all the innocence
To be someone like me
This is the birth of all hope
To have what I once had
This life unforgiven
It will end with a birth

No will to wake for this morn
To see another black rose born
Deathbed is slowly covered with snow

Angels, they fell first but I'm still here
Alone as they are drawing near
In heaven my masterpiece will finally be sung

Wounded is the deer that leaps highest
And my wound it cuts so deep
Turn off the light and let me pull the plug

Mandylion without a face
Deathwish without a prayer
End of hope
End of love
End of time
The rest is silence


4. Bless The Child

"I was born amidst the purple waterfalls.
I was weak, yet not unblessed.
Dead to the world. Alive for the journey.
One night I dreamt a white rose withering,
a newborn drowning a lifetime loneliness.
I dreamt all my future. Relived my past.
A witnessed the beauty of the beast"

Where have all the feelings gone?
Why has all the laughter ceased?

Why am I loved only when I'm gone?
Gone back in time to bless the child
Think of me long enough to make a memory
Come bless the child one more time

How can I ever feel again?
Given the chance would I return?

I've never felt so alone in my life
As I drank from a cup which was counting my time
There's a poison drop in this cup of Man
To drink it is to follow the left hand path

"Where have all the feelings gone?
Why is the deadliest sin - to love as I loved you?
Now unblessed, homesick in time,
soon to be freed from care, from human pain.
My tale is the most bitter truth:
Time pays us but with earth & dust, and a dark, silent grave.
Remember, my child: Without innocence the cross is only iron,
hope is only an illusion & Ocean Soul's nothing but a name...

The Child bless thee & keep thee forever"


5. Sleeping Sun

The sun is sleeping quietly
Once upon a century
Wistful oceans calm and red
Ardent caresses laid to rest
For my dreams I hold my life
For wishes I behold my nights
A truth at the end of time
Losing faith makes a crime

I wish for this night-time to last for a life-time
The darkness around me - shores of a solar sea
Oh how I wish to go down with the sun
Sleeping
Weeping
With you

Sorrow has a human heart
From my God it will depart
I`d sail before a thousand moons
Never finding where to go
222 days of light
Will be desired by a night
A moment for the poet`s play
Until there`s nothing left to say


6. She Is My Sin

Take heed, dear heart
Once apart, she can touch nor me nor you
Dressed as one
A wolf will betray a lamb

Lead astray the gazers
The razors on your seducing skin
In the meadow of sinful thoughts
Every flower's a perfect one

To paradise with pleasure haunted,
Haunted by fear

A sin for him
Desire within, Desire within
A burning veil
For the bride too dear for him
A sin for him
Desire within, Desire within
Fall in love with your deep dark sin

I am the Fallen
You are what my sins enclose
Lust is not as creative
As its discovery

To paradise with pleasure haunted,
Haunted by fear

A sin for him...

Bless me, undress me
Pick your prey in a wicked way
God I must confess... I do envy the sinners


7. Walking In The Air

We're walking in the air
We're floating in the moonlit sky
The people far below are sleeping as we fly

I'm holding very tight
I'm riding in the midnight blue
I'm finding I can fly so high above with you

Far across the world
The villages go by like trees
the rivers and the hills
The forest and the streams

Children gaze open mouth
Taken by surprise
Nobody down below believes their eyes

We're surfing in the air
We're swimming in the frozen sky
We're drifting over icy
mountains floating by

Suddenly swooping low on an ocean deep
Arousing of a mighty monster from its sleep

We're walking in the air
We're floating in the midnight sky
And everyone who sees us greets us as we fly


8. Stargazers

A grand oasis in the vastness of gloom
Child of dew-spangled cobweb, Mother to the Moon
Constellations beholders of the 3rd vagrant
Theater for the play of life

Tragedienne of heavens
Watching the eyes of the night
Sailing the virgin oceans
A Planetride for Mother and Child

Floating upon the quiet hydrogen lakes
In this ambrosial merry-go-round they will gaze
Ephemeral life touched by a billion-year-show
Separating the poet from the woe

[Repeat chorus]

Oracle of the Delfian Domine
Witness of Adam's frailty
Seer of the master prophecy
The stellar world her betrothed

Wanderers in cosmic caravan
Universal bond - The Starborn

A son in search for the truth
Following the pages of Almagest
Discovering the origin of dreams
Stargazers ride through the ancient realms

[Repeat chorus]


9. Over The Hills And Far Away

They came for him one winter's night.
Arrested, he was bound.
They said there'd been a robbery,
his pistol had been found.

They marched him to the station house,
he waited for the dawn.
And as they led him to the dock,
he knew that he'd been wronged.
"You stand accused of robbery,"
he heard the bailiff say.
He knew without an alibi,
tomorrow's light would mourn his freedom.

Over the hills and far away,
for ten long years he'll count the days.
Over the mountains and the seas,
a prisoner's life for him there'll be.

He knew that it would cost him dear,
but yet he dare not say.
Where he had been that fateful night,
a secret it must stay.
He had to fight back tears of rage.
His heart beat like a drum.
For with the wife of his best friend,
he spent his final night of freedom.

Over the hills and far away,
he swears he will return one day.
Far from the mountains and the seas,
back in her arms he swears he'll be.
Over the hills and far away.

Over the hills and,
over the hills and,
over the hills and far away.

Each night within his prison cell,
he looks out through the bars.
He reads the letters that she wrote.
One day he'll know the taste of freedom.

Over the hills and far away,
she prays he will return one day.
As sure as the rivers reach the seas,
back in his arms he swears she'll be.

Over the hills and far away,
he swears he will return one day.
Far from the mountains and the seas,
back in her arms he swears he'll be.

Over the hills and far away,
she prays he will return one day.
As sure as the rivers reach the seas,
back in his arms is where she'll be.

Over the hills,
over the hills and far away.

Over the hills,
over the hills and far away.


10. The Kinslayer

For whom the gun tolls
For whom the prey weeps
Bow before a war
Call it religion

Some wounds never heal
Some tears never will
Dry for the unkind
Cry for mankind

Even the dead cry
- Their only comfort
Kill your friend, I don't care
Orchid kids, blinded stare

Need to understand
No need to forgive
No truth no sense left to be followed

"Facing this unbearable fear like meeting an old friend"
"Time to die, poor mates, You made me what I am!"

"In this world of a million religions everyone prays the same way"

"Your praying is in vain It'll all be over soon"
"Father help me, save me a place by your side!"
"There is no god Our creed is but for ourselves"

"Not a hero unless you die Our species eat the wounded ones"

"Drunk with the blood of your victims
I do feel your pity-wanting pain,
Lust for fame, a deadly game"

"Run away with your impeccable kin!"

"- Good wombs hath borne bad sons..."
- Cursing, God, why?
Falling for every lie
Survivors' guilt
In us forevermore

15 candles
Redeemers of this world
Dwell in hypocrisy:
"How were we supposed to know"

4 pink ones
9 blue ones
2 black ones

[In memory of the Redeemers 20.4.1999]


11. Dead Boy's Poem

Born from silence, silence full of it
A perfect concert my best friend
So much to live for, so much to die for
If only my heart had a home

Sing what you can't say
Forget what you can't play
Hasten to drown into beautiful eyes
Walk within my poetry, this dying music
- My love letter to nobody

Never sigh for better world
It's already composed, played and told
Every thought the music I write
Everything a wish for the night

Wrote for the eclipse, wrote for the virgin
Died for the beauty the one in the garden
Created a kingdom, reached for the wisdom
Failed in becoming a god

Never sigh...

"If you read this line, remember not the hand that wrote it
Remember only the verse, songmaker's cry the one without tears
For I've given this its strength and it has become my only strength.
Comforting home, mother's lap, chance for immortality
where being wanted became a thrill I never knew
The sweet piano writing down my life"

"Teach me passion for I fear it's gone
Show me love, hold the lorn
So much more I wanted to give to the ones who love me
I'm sorry
Time will tell (this bitter farewell)
I live no more to shame nor me nor you
And you... I wish I didn't feel for you anymore..."

A lonely soul
An ocean soul


12. Sleepwalker

Close your eyes
Feel the ocean where passion lies
Silently the senses
Abandon all defences

The place between sleep and awake
End of innocence
Unending masquerade
That`s where I`ll wait for you

Hold me, near you
So closely, sear you
Seeing, believing
Dreaming, deceiving

Sleepwalker seducing me
I dared to enter your ecstasy
Lay yourself now down to sleep
In my dreams you`re mine to keep

Sleepwalker


13. Nightquest

Born to the false world, the wanderer,
Storyteller, The Pied Piper
On a quest for immortality
Gathering a troop to find the fantasy

Led by a maid - Queen of the night
Voice of angels, such a divine sight
An Amazon to fight and cure
This reality with her feline lure

Patriotic to the promised land of Neverwaking Dream

Nightquest - quest not for the past
But for tomorrow to make it last
Simply the best - way to walk this life
Hand in hand with the dreamers' minds

Enter the realm, don't stay awake
The dreams remain, they only brake
Forget the task, enjoy the ride
And follow us into the night

A merry minstrel with his fingers fast
Playing his lute, charming every lass
Joins the troop with a glitter in his eye
" Shall I find fame or shall I die"

A warrior of power along the path
A hammerheart, his gallantry to last
Rhythm of sirens, enemies, take heed
For in this war laws are a silent sleep

Patriotic to the promised land of Neverwaking Dream

"Come to the elf land" the eldest said,
"In my guidance you shall not be afraid,
I am the mastermind, the wizard to show the way"

First ones to guard this path of night
Lady in black, Lady in white
Followed by legions of night-time wanderers

Guardians of the halls of heart
When we from our homeland depart
To challenge the gods of emptiness
May the quest begin


14. Lagoon

Imagine a perfect beach
Without a mermaid
Imagine a perfect hideaway
Without a time

Ocean Soul

Imagine a perfect Eden
Without a friend without a serpent

Ocean Soul
Lonely Soul

"Feeling lonely and content at the same time,
I believe, is a rare kind of happiness"

Ocean Soul


15. The Wayfarer

I went into the wilderness with Uncle Walt
I discovered the wild
Learning to suck all the experience
Seeing the world through cradle's bars

The wild blessed me with an errant mind
Showing the way for the ultimate lore
I went around the world, beyond the wild
Finding my home from an ocean shore

Wayfarer, heartlander
What if I only had
One more night to live

Home is where the way is
My road goes on forever
One more voyage to go

Dead to the world
Alive for the journey