She Ran

Song She Ran
Artist Karl Verkade
Album Soundtracks & Stories Ii: Prufrock Landscapes

Lyrics

[00:25.95] The night was cold and thin.
[00:28.72] The air was scantily clad in such a way that she felt that
[00:31.64] If she could but stop for a second, she could reach through it and grasp time.
[00:37.12] Arrest it, stop it, bring back the years of hope,
[00:42.87] Before the years of inevitably set in.
[00:46.46] But she did not stop.
[00:49.19] She ran.
[00:52.61] Air is a precious commodity; one she had taken for granted until it was all she had.
[01:00.79] Tonight she chased it; she felt as if her lungs could not get enough of it.
[01:08.21] With each new step, a new shallow breath,
[01:12.39] And a new resolve to continue filling her chest
[01:15.66] With the last thing in this world that was free.
[01:20.00] She knew that if she stopped, the night would end;
[01:23.53] And she did not want the night to end.
[01:26.50] The colors were too vivid.
[01:29.10] First the reds…the piercing reds.
[01:32.64] They swept out of the night sky in such an instant
[01:36.35] That she did not have time to witness their origin.
[01:39.41] But there they were.
[01:41.18] Swirling, brilliant reds that swept her up like she scarcely remembered.
[01:47.21] Indeed, did she even remember it?
[01:49.74] Or was this the embodiment of a shadow she always hoped to one day remember.
[01:54.94] The color floated around her as she ran, keeping up with her;
[01:59.28] Perhaps even lagging back a little so that she could keep up with it.
[02:03.83] She could not help it; she began to be entranced by its brilliance,
[02:08.85] Though she dared not slow down.
[02:11.09] She peered into it,
[02:13.13] Trying to imprint upon her memory every detail of its stunning lifeform.
[02:17.78] Then suddenly, did it change?
[02:21.60] The reds were not quite as flowing as they once were.
[02:25.12] They moved a little more awkwardly.
[02:27.91] She knew she had seen that movement before, somewhere.
[02:31.38] Then she remembered.
[02:32.90] Yes! The reds were walking!
[02:33.74] Alongside her they walked, still dancingly keeping up with her every running stride.
[02:41.10] Their shapes became more and more human.
[02:44.16] She recognized one of the colors.
[02:46.93] He looked into her eyes with the love that said that it was already finished;
[02:51.42] There was nothing she could do to ever spurn that love.
[02:55.40] Then another color touched her shoulder.
[02:59.03] She whirled her head around just in time to catch the shape
[03:03.46] Of a life that spoke of a bond with her that nothing but tears could form.
[03:06.44] In an instant, the motherly shape was gone,
[03:11.75] But reformed next to the figure on her other side, walking arm in arm with it.
[03:15.10] She almost stumbled.
[03:20.55] Something had touched her heels.
[03:22.72] She turned her head around long enough to see a child following behind her.
[03:27.15] It was a little girl…a little girl without colors.
[03:32.07] She skipped and sauntered, without a care in the world,
[03:36.58] But all the time keeping up with her.
[03:38.86] She wondered at the child; she wondered at childhood.
[03:43.33] So happy, so light; all its cares are immediate.
[03:49.63] There is no sense of that fact that time will one day have its way.
[03:54.65] No one tells children the truth.
[03:57.64] From somewhere behind the child, deep in the distance,
[04:02.39] She thought she saw another red.
[04:05.71] A different red.
[04:07.37] But she couldn't be sure; she had to keep her head straight onward,
[04:11.46] To immerse herself in the air, in the night.
[04:14.38] Nor did she have time to worry about the new color,
[04:18.05] Or the child, as the brilliant reds by her side had split into multiple colors,
[04:19.56] Each walking at its own pace somewhere by her side.
[04:27.08] They were dear to her…some moreso than others.
[04:30.97] All looked at her with varying degrees of knowingness.
[04:34.99] One in particular.
[04:36.66] He looked at her with a seriousness, and a questioning.
[04:40.01] His was by far the most tender touch, but not the most knowing.
[04:45.92] She slowed slightly, gasping for breath as she did.
[04:49.53] She turned to look at him, but her gaze was interrupted by the new color,
[04:54.76] Now creeping along the horizon next to her.
[04:58.72] It was a dark color, and threatened to swallow the red she now fought desperately to keep.
[04:58.82] She reached out for him; but slowly he faded, and slowly the dark approached.
[05:05.05] She had seen this before.
[05:16.28] In an instant he was gone, and in his place were two other brilliant reds.
[05:21.21] One for whom she cared, one with whom she was comfortable.
[05:25.33] The dark color approached.
[05:29.10] She tried to outrun it, but it was of no use.
[05:32.99] It swallowed up the two colors just as it had swallowed the last.
[05:37.95] She now saw that it was not a darkness, but a deepness.
[05:42.40] A deep red that spoke of something she knew all too well.
[05:46.21] It sent shudders through her life-stained body.
[05:49.92] The shudders continued as she ran.
[05:53.65] And continued.
[05:55.14] Until she had unknowingly discovered that she was quite at home with the shudders.
[05:59.50] She did not mind them.
[06:01.91] In fact, the deep red had mixed with the brilliant red so much so that
[06:06.44] Neither color was now better or worse for the mixing;
[06:12.20] But they were more real.
[06:13.88] Then, just as she was about to acquiesce to the new deep and brilliant red,
[06:18.24] It suddenly birthed a figure.
[06:20.65] And she hated.
[06:22.41] She hated its curves, and its smoothness, and its beauty.
[06:26.96] It tore from the rest of the colors, revealing its blackness.
[06:31.19] And then, in horror, she watched as it reached back
[06:35.52] Into the deep and brilliant red and pulled from it the loving figure.
[06:40.70] He looked at her as she ran with the same,
[06:43.42] Unquenchable love as before, as he faded off into the distance
[06:47.77] With the beautiful black figure.
[06:50.18] She ran harder; and at her heels she felt the child again.
[06:57.75] She turned again to look, and now saw a young lady, walking warily behind her.
[07:01.70] She knew that look; the colors had replaced the innocence.
[07:09.88] She had never been sure which was more desirable;
[07:13.15] But now she knew that neither could ever coexist peacefully with the other.
[07:17.61] The deep, brilliant red circled around her and comforted her.
[07:23.28] It did not split into its native colors, nor would it ever again.
[07:28.58] And she was grateful.
[07:30.52] Now there was another color.
[07:34.13] It crept out from behind her.
[07:37.12] She turned to look; were the colors coming from the child?
[07:41.48] But it was no longer a child, or a young lady.
[07:44.52] It was a young woman…a young woman with a war in her eyes,
[07:49.46] Between childlike hope and the lamentable wisdom of the inevitable.
[07:54.00] She recognized that look.
[07:56.87] And she ran faster.
[07:58.85] But she could not outrun the new color.
[08:03.01] It surrounded her,
[08:05.27] And here and there penetrated the deep and brilliant red with its yellow haze.
[08:09.88] It was a tired color…so tired that it was almost transparent,
[08:15.17] And blended in with the night in such a way that at times,
[08:19.17] In her gasping for air, she would inevitably suck in its yellow weariness as well.
[08:24.36] But she did not mind.
[08:27.52] A little weariness might even be nice…
[08:30.24] It made her feel as if her running was accomplishing something.
[08:34.05] Accomplishment.
[08:35.82] The reds spoke nothing of that.
[08:39.06] She wondered at her life, and for the first time, looked upwards.
[08:45.17] There were no colors to see through…just the night sky.
[08:48.81] The vastness looked down upon her as if it knew her.
[08:54.18] She slowed a little, letting her inconsequential state settle in over tired bones.
[09:00.24] The yellow crept wearily into her upward gaze,
[09:04.96] And she knew the child at her heels was now a woman.
[09:08.39] She did not turn, but ran onwards,
[09:11.93] knowing all too well the look in the pursuing woman's eyes.
[09:15.75] There would be tears, resolve, the tiniest glints of echoes that were once laughter;
[09:22.61] But most of all, the yellow weariness.
[09:26.68] Her legs were tired, her lungs empty.
[09:31.80] She inhaled without the benefit of air,
[09:35.35] As the deep and brilliant red moved underneath her and helped her forward.
[09:39.35] The yellow slowed her enough to where she could look around her a bit;
[09:44.65] She discovered trees…big, green trees towering over her on either side.
[09:51.02]
[09:57.17] And the little child softly padded around in front of her.
[10:01.65] The bright eyes of the child were now furrowed under a wrinkled brow,
[10:08.30] And the once beautiful cheekbones now protruded in
[10:11.84] A manner unworthy of the years and wisdom that made them such.
[10:16.23] At first she blushed with the hardness of the old woman's gaze,
[10:20.10] But then stared back at herself with the same knowing inevitability.
[10:25.97] The old woman took her hand in hers, and walked her down the path.
[10:31.09] She tried to run to keep up, but could not;
[10:36.01] The old woman dragged her softly and silently onward,
[10:39.88] As the deep and brilliant red carried her,
[10:42.71] The tired yellow enveloped her,
[10:44.80] And the green trees lapped gently at their own dust which formed her body.
[10:51.32] And she stopped running.
[10:55.78]
[11:06.44] It had been a miserable night,
[11:07.98] And they were excited to be able to go into the alley and play today.
[11:12.67] They bounced the ball against the cracked bricks of the tall buildings,
[11:16.74] And he even let her win a few times.
[11:19.68] But this turn, he was going to win.
[11:22.90] With all the bravado a big brother can muster,
[11:26.14] He slammed the ball at the corner of the building where the curb met the bricks.
[11:30.32] The ball ricocheted down the alley, towards an oncoming truck.
[11:34.54] As it did, it dislodged some old newspaper crumblings,
[11:38.70] And in the tired yellow light cascading onto the alley through the old buildings,
[11:43.50] They saw it.
[11:45.47] His sister screamed and went running back through the shabby aluminum door
[11:48.35] Into their mother’s apartment.
[11:51.78] But he couldn't move.
[11:53.57] He stared at her.
[11:56.24]
[12:00.97] They drove down the alley.
[12:02.91] What a miserable day.
[12:04.70] The night had been cold, and whenever the nights were cold,
[12:08.41] He knew it would be a long day.
[12:10.26] He watched as two children bounced a ball against the side of the grimy building.
[12:15.91] The ball got away from them and in the tired yellow haze peering through the buildings,
[12:19.27] He saw the ball dislodge some old papers;
[12:24.41] And underneath it, he saw another one.
[12:28.02] They stopped the truck and walked over to the body.
[12:31.36] It was not her…it was never her; it was a shell.
[12:37.11] He wondered who she was.
[12:40.53] They picked her up, and he knew that beneath his gloves, there was coldness.
[12:47.63] But her open eyes seemed peaceful; somehow that brought him comfort.
[12:52.51] He looked into her eyes as the red of the bag enveloped her body, and she was gone.
[12:58.28] It was then that he noticed the boy.
[13:04.50] He hadn't moved, but was staring at them with large, questioning eyes.
[13:09.59] He nodded at the boy as they carried her back to their truck,
[13:14.52] And attempted a smile through his mask.
[13:14.61] The boy was motionless.
[13:22.13] "We're just taking her someplace where she can rest," was all he managed.
[13:26.62] "I know what the green trucks mean," said the boy bravely.
[13:31.17] "But you've never seen this before?"
[13:34.79] The boy shook his head,
[13:36.91] Fighting back the tears for which he had been taught he was too old.
[13:40.46] The man stopped, and pulled his mask off over his head.
[13:45.76] He looked straight into the boy's quivering eyes.
[13:48.62] "It's very short. Don't waste it."
[13:53.30] He looked at the boy.
[13:56.60] The boy looked back at him.
[13:59.95] Not knowing what else to do, he slowly turned away,
[14:04.31] Leaving the boy standing alone in the alley;
[14:06.93] Older, whether he wanted to be or not.
[14:10.47] They put her in with all the rest.
[14:16.47]
[14:25.76]

Pinyin

[00:25.95] The night was cold and thin.
[00:28.72] The air was scantily clad in such a way that she felt that
[00:31.64] If she could but stop for a second, she could reach through it and grasp time.
[00:37.12] Arrest it, stop it, bring back the years of hope,
[00:42.87] Before the years of inevitably set in.
[00:46.46] But she did not stop.
[00:49.19] She ran.
[00:52.61] Air is a precious commodity one she had taken for granted until it was all she had.
[01:00.79] Tonight she chased it she felt as if her lungs could not get enough of it.
[01:08.21] With each new step, a new shallow breath,
[01:12.39] And a new resolve to continue filling her chest
[01:15.66] With the last thing in this world that was free.
[01:20.00] She knew that if she stopped, the night would end
[01:23.53] And she did not want the night to end.
[01:26.50] The colors were too vivid.
[01:29.10] First the reds the piercing reds.
[01:32.64] They swept out of the night sky in such an instant
[01:36.35] That she did not have time to witness their origin.
[01:39.41] But there they were.
[01:41.18] Swirling, brilliant reds that swept her up like she scarcely remembered.
[01:47.21] Indeed, did she even remember it?
[01:49.74] Or was this the embodiment of a shadow she always hoped to one day remember.
[01:54.94] The color floated around her as she ran, keeping up with her
[01:59.28] Perhaps even lagging back a little so that she could keep up with it.
[02:03.83] She could not help it she began to be entranced by its brilliance,
[02:08.85] Though she dared not slow down.
[02:11.09] She peered into it,
[02:13.13] Trying to imprint upon her memory every detail of its stunning lifeform.
[02:17.78] Then suddenly, did it change?
[02:21.60] The reds were not quite as flowing as they once were.
[02:25.12] They moved a little more awkwardly.
[02:27.91] She knew she had seen that movement before, somewhere.
[02:31.38] Then she remembered.
[02:32.90] Yes! The reds were walking!
[02:33.74] Alongside her they walked, still dancingly keeping up with her every running stride.
[02:41.10] Their shapes became more and more human.
[02:44.16] She recognized one of the colors.
[02:46.93] He looked into her eyes with the love that said that it was already finished
[02:51.42] There was nothing she could do to ever spurn that love.
[02:55.40] Then another color touched her shoulder.
[02:59.03] She whirled her head around just in time to catch the shape
[03:03.46] Of a life that spoke of a bond with her that nothing but tears could form.
[03:06.44] In an instant, the motherly shape was gone,
[03:11.75] But reformed next to the figure on her other side, walking arm in arm with it.
[03:15.10] She almost stumbled.
[03:20.55] Something had touched her heels.
[03:22.72] She turned her head around long enough to see a child following behind her.
[03:27.15] It was a little girl a little girl without colors.
[03:32.07] She skipped and sauntered, without a care in the world,
[03:36.58] But all the time keeping up with her.
[03:38.86] She wondered at the child she wondered at childhood.
[03:43.33] So happy, so light all its cares are immediate.
[03:49.63] There is no sense of that fact that time will one day have its way.
[03:54.65] No one tells children the truth.
[03:57.64] From somewhere behind the child, deep in the distance,
[04:02.39] She thought she saw another red.
[04:05.71] A different red.
[04:07.37] But she couldn' t be sure she had to keep her head straight onward,
[04:11.46] To immerse herself in the air, in the night.
[04:14.38] Nor did she have time to worry about the new color,
[04:18.05] Or the child, as the brilliant reds by her side had split into multiple colors,
[04:19.56] Each walking at its own pace somewhere by her side.
[04:27.08] They were dear to her some moreso than others.
[04:30.97] All looked at her with varying degrees of knowingness.
[04:34.99] One in particular.
[04:36.66] He looked at her with a seriousness, and a questioning.
[04:40.01] His was by far the most tender touch, but not the most knowing.
[04:45.92] She slowed slightly, gasping for breath as she did.
[04:49.53] She turned to look at him, but her gaze was interrupted by the new color,
[04:54.76] Now creeping along the horizon next to her.
[04:58.72] It was a dark color, and threatened to swallow the red she now fought desperately to keep.
[04:58.82] She reached out for him but slowly he faded, and slowly the dark approached.
[05:05.05] She had seen this before.
[05:16.28] In an instant he was gone, and in his place were two other brilliant reds.
[05:21.21] One for whom she cared, one with whom she was comfortable.
[05:25.33] The dark color approached.
[05:29.10] She tried to outrun it, but it was of no use.
[05:32.99] It swallowed up the two colors just as it had swallowed the last.
[05:37.95] She now saw that it was not a darkness, but a deepness.
[05:42.40] A deep red that spoke of something she knew all too well.
[05:46.21] It sent shudders through her lifestained body.
[05:49.92] The shudders continued as she ran.
[05:53.65] And continued.
[05:55.14] Until she had unknowingly discovered that she was quite at home with the shudders.
[05:59.50] She did not mind them.
[06:01.91] In fact, the deep red had mixed with the brilliant red so much so that
[06:06.44] Neither color was now better or worse for the mixing
[06:12.20] But they were more real.
[06:13.88] Then, just as she was about to acquiesce to the new deep and brilliant red,
[06:18.24] It suddenly birthed a figure.
[06:20.65] And she hated.
[06:22.41] She hated its curves, and its smoothness, and its beauty.
[06:26.96] It tore from the rest of the colors, revealing its blackness.
[06:31.19] And then, in horror, she watched as it reached back
[06:35.52] Into the deep and brilliant red and pulled from it the loving figure.
[06:40.70] He looked at her as she ran with the same,
[06:43.42] Unquenchable love as before, as he faded off into the distance
[06:47.77] With the beautiful black figure.
[06:50.18] She ran harder and at her heels she felt the child again.
[06:57.75] She turned again to look, and now saw a young lady, walking warily behind her.
[07:01.70] She knew that look the colors had replaced the innocence.
[07:09.88] She had never been sure which was more desirable
[07:13.15] But now she knew that neither could ever coexist peacefully with the other.
[07:17.61] The deep, brilliant red circled around her and comforted her.
[07:23.28] It did not split into its native colors, nor would it ever again.
[07:28.58] And she was grateful.
[07:30.52] Now there was another color.
[07:34.13] It crept out from behind her.
[07:37.12] She turned to look were the colors coming from the child?
[07:41.48] But it was no longer a child, or a young lady.
[07:44.52] It was a young woman a young woman with a war in her eyes,
[07:49.46] Between childlike hope and the lamentable wisdom of the inevitable.
[07:54.00] She recognized that look.
[07:56.87] And she ran faster.
[07:58.85] But she could not outrun the new color.
[08:03.01] It surrounded her,
[08:05.27] And here and there penetrated the deep and brilliant red with its yellow haze.
[08:09.88] It was a tired color so tired that it was almost transparent,
[08:15.17] And blended in with the night in such a way that at times,
[08:19.17] In her gasping for air, she would inevitably suck in its yellow weariness as well.
[08:24.36] But she did not mind.
[08:27.52] A little weariness might even be nice
[08:30.24] It made her feel as if her running was accomplishing something.
[08:34.05] Accomplishment.
[08:35.82] The reds spoke nothing of that.
[08:39.06] She wondered at her life, and for the first time, looked upwards.
[08:45.17] There were no colors to see through just the night sky.
[08:48.81] The vastness looked down upon her as if it knew her.
[08:54.18] She slowed a little, letting her inconsequential state settle in over tired bones.
[09:00.24] The yellow crept wearily into her upward gaze,
[09:04.96] And she knew the child at her heels was now a woman.
[09:08.39] She did not turn, but ran onwards,
[09:11.93] knowing all too well the look in the pursuing woman' s eyes.
[09:15.75] There would be tears, resolve, the tiniest glints of echoes that were once laughter
[09:22.61] But most of all, the yellow weariness.
[09:26.68] Her legs were tired, her lungs empty.
[09:31.80] She inhaled without the benefit of air,
[09:35.35] As the deep and brilliant red moved underneath her and helped her forward.
[09:39.35] The yellow slowed her enough to where she could look around her a bit
[09:44.65] She discovered trees big, green trees towering over her on either side.
[09:51.02]
[09:57.17] And the little child softly padded around in front of her.
[10:01.65] The bright eyes of the child were now furrowed under a wrinkled brow,
[10:08.30] And the once beautiful cheekbones now protruded in
[10:11.84] A manner unworthy of the years and wisdom that made them such.
[10:16.23] At first she blushed with the hardness of the old woman' s gaze,
[10:20.10] But then stared back at herself with the same knowing inevitability.
[10:25.97] The old woman took her hand in hers, and walked her down the path.
[10:31.09] She tried to run to keep up, but could not
[10:36.01] The old woman dragged her softly and silently onward,
[10:39.88] As the deep and brilliant red carried her,
[10:42.71] The tired yellow enveloped her,
[10:44.80] And the green trees lapped gently at their own dust which formed her body.
[10:51.32] And she stopped running.
[10:55.78]
[11:06.44] It had been a miserable night,
[11:07.98] And they were excited to be able to go into the alley and play today.
[11:12.67] They bounced the ball against the cracked bricks of the tall buildings,
[11:16.74] And he even let her win a few times.
[11:19.68] But this turn, he was going to win.
[11:22.90] With all the bravado a big brother can muster,
[11:26.14] He slammed the ball at the corner of the building where the curb met the bricks.
[11:30.32] The ball ricocheted down the alley, towards an oncoming truck.
[11:34.54] As it did, it dislodged some old newspaper crumblings,
[11:38.70] And in the tired yellow light cascading onto the alley through the old buildings,
[11:43.50] They saw it.
[11:45.47] His sister screamed and went running back through the shabby aluminum door
[11:48.35] Into their mother' s apartment.
[11:51.78] But he couldn' t move.
[11:53.57] He stared at her.
[11:56.24]
[12:00.97] They drove down the alley.
[12:02.91] What a miserable day.
[12:04.70] The night had been cold, and whenever the nights were cold,
[12:08.41] He knew it would be a long day.
[12:10.26] He watched as two children bounced a ball against the side of the grimy building.
[12:15.91] The ball got away from them and in the tired yellow haze peering through the buildings,
[12:19.27] He saw the ball dislodge some old papers
[12:24.41] And underneath it, he saw another one.
[12:28.02] They stopped the truck and walked over to the body.
[12:31.36] It was not her it was never her it was a shell.
[12:37.11] He wondered who she was.
[12:40.53] They picked her up, and he knew that beneath his gloves, there was coldness.
[12:47.63] But her open eyes seemed peaceful somehow that brought him comfort.
[12:52.51] He looked into her eyes as the red of the bag enveloped her body, and she was gone.
[12:58.28] It was then that he noticed the boy.
[13:04.50] He hadn' t moved, but was staring at them with large, questioning eyes.
[13:09.59] He nodded at the boy as they carried her back to their truck,
[13:14.52] And attempted a smile through his mask.
[13:14.61] The boy was motionless.
[13:22.13] " We' re just taking her someplace where she can rest," was all he managed.
[13:26.62] " I know what the green trucks mean," said the boy bravely.
[13:31.17] " But you' ve never seen this before?"
[13:34.79] The boy shook his head,
[13:36.91] Fighting back the tears for which he had been taught he was too old.
[13:40.46] The man stopped, and pulled his mask off over his head.
[13:45.76] He looked straight into the boy' s quivering eyes.
[13:48.62] " It' s very short. Don' t waste it."
[13:53.30] He looked at the boy.
[13:56.60] The boy looked back at him.
[13:59.95] Not knowing what else to do, he slowly turned away,
[14:04.31] Leaving the boy standing alone in the alley
[14:06.93] Older, whether he wanted to be or not.
[14:10.47] They put her in with all the rest.
[14:16.47]
[14:25.76]