The Sleepwalkers (2005 Digital Remaster)

Song The Sleepwalkers (2005 Digital Remaster)
Artist Van Der Graaf Generator
Album Godbluff

Lyrics

[00:19.04] At night, this mindless army, ranks unbroken by dissent,
[00:27.28] Is moved into action and their pace does not relent.
[00:37.39] In step, with great precision, these dancers of the night
[00:45.75] Advance against the darkness how implacable their might!
[00:52.43] Eyes undulled by moon, their arms and legs akimbo,
[00:59.72] They walk and live, hoping soon to surface from this limbo.
[01:11.58] Their minds, anticipating the dawn of the day,
[01:15.61] Shall never know what's waiting mere insight away
[01:19.39] Too far, too soon.
[01:28.22] Senses dimmed in semi-sentience, only wheeling through this plane,
[01:37.00] Only seeing fragmented images, prematurely curtailed by the brain,
[01:47.41] But breathing, living, knowing in some measure at least
[01:55.97] The soul which roots the matter of both Beauty and the Beast.
[02:02.78] From what tooth or claw does murder spring,
[02:05.85] From what flesh and blood does passion?
[02:09.92] Both cut through the air with the pendulum's swing
[02:13.02] In deadly but delicate fashion.
[02:21.91] And every range of feeling is there in the dream
[02:26.01] And every logic's reeling in the force of the scream;
[02:29.67] The senses sting.
[02:33.71] And though I may be dreaming and reality stalls
[02:37.86] I only know the meaning of sight and that's all
[02:41.69] And that's nothing.
[02:46.32] The columns of the night advance,
[02:49.60] Infectiously, their cryptic dance
[02:51.92] Gathers converts to the fold
[02:54.24] In time the whole raw world will pace these same steps
[02:59.81] On into the same bitter end.
[03:49.62] Somnolent muster now the dancing dead
[03:53.22] Forsake the shelter of their secure beds,
[03:56.81] Awaken to a slumber whose depths they dread,
[04:00.42] As if the ground they tread would give way
[04:03.01] Beneath the solemn weight of their conception.
[04:11.38] I'd search the hidden corners of all this world,
[04:16.54] Make reason of the sensory whorl
[04:21.70] If I only had time,
[04:30.16] But soon the dream is ended.
[07:02.88] Tonight, before you lay down to the sweetness of your sleep
[07:15.95] Do you question your surrender to the drop from Lover's Leap
[07:27.68] Or does the anaesthetic darkness take hold on its very own?
[07:41.13] Does your body rise in service with not one dissenting groan?
[07:49.62] These waking dreams of life and death
[07:52.57] In the mirror are twisted and buckled;
[07:57.07] Lashes flicker, a catch of breath,
[08:00.45] Skin whitening at the knuckles.
[08:09.52] The army of sleepwalkers shake their limbs and are loose
[08:13.65] And though I am a talker, I can phrase no excuse
[08:17.21] Not to rise again.
[08:22.07] In the chorus of the night-time I belong
[08:25.92] And I, like you, must dance to that moonlight song
[08:29.65] And in the end I, too, must pay the cost of this life.
[08:34.54] If all is lost none is known
[08:37.54] And how could we lose what we've never owned?
[08:44.48] Oh, I'd search out every knowledge that I could find,
[08:49.64] Unravel all the mysteries of mind,
[08:54.90] If I only had time,
[08:58.89] If I only had time,
[09:03.30] But soon my time is ended.