The Harrowing Years

This I have learnt:

World forces all of us down

The fleeing years bend our backs

Love but smears our hearts

Here I now lie still like a broken bow

Soul sullen and rigid with the will to die

Sighing after the days long since gone

Cursing every step on this ill-fated trail

In vain I try to forget, In vain I try to forgive

Black bird from evening sky, raven from heaths of night

Come and take my cares, carry away the grief

Bereave me of my woes, rend off these earthly throes

Fly them to deepest lakes, to the starlit shores

This I have learnt

Even the sweetest wine turns to sour

We work our fingers to the bone

All our efforts of no avail

Here we all are but troubled guests

On darkling earth

Lost echoes that pine away

Into the dusk

Nothing more than the wind to rely on

Nothing more than the death

to comfort us in the end

This I have heard:

All ends in serene sleep

All these sorrows are washed away

As we lapse into the night

But I know it's a lie