Lyrics Time, As a Symptom - Joanna Newsom

Time, As a Symptom

Time passed hard
And the task was the hardest thing she’d ever do
But she forgot
The moment she saw you
So it would seem to be true:
When cruel birth debases, we forget
When cruel death debases
We believe it erases all the rest
That precedes
But stand brave, life-liver
Bleeding out your days
In the river of time
Stand brave:
Time moves both ways
In the nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life;
The nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life
The moment of your greatest joy sustains:
Not axe nor hammer
Tumor, tremor
Can take it away,
and it remains
It remains
And it pains me to say, I was wrong
Love is not a symptom of time
Time is just a symptom of love
(and the nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life;
The nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life)
Hardly seen, hardly felt-
Deep down where your fight is waiting
Down 'till the light in your eyes is fading:
Joy of life
Where I know that you can yield, when it comes down to it;
Bow like the field when the wind combs through it:
Joy of life
And every little gust that chances through
Will dance in the dust of me and you
With joy-of-life
And in our perfect secret-keeping:
One ear of corn
In silent, reaping
Joy of life
Joy!
Again, around-a pause, a sound-a song
A way a lone a last a loved a long
A cave, a grave, a day: arise, ascend
(Areion, Rharian, go free and graze. Amen.)
A shore, a tide, unmoored-a sight, abroad:
A dawn, unmarked, undone, undarked
(a god)
No time.
No flock.
No chime, no clock.
No end
White star, white ship-Nightjar, transmit: transcend!
White star, white ship-Nightjar, transmit: transcend!
White star, white ship-Nightjar, transmit: transcend!
White star, white ship
Nightjar
, transmit:
trans-