What Is Eternal

[beethoven]

And here in the night

As i feel the inferno

I stare in the dark

Thinking what is eternal

The man or the moment

The act or the reason

These thoughts fill my head

As i contemplate treason

Of dreams i have had

And dreams i have pondered

When late in the night

My mind it would wander

To things i have done

And then quickly regretted

While denying vices

My life had selected

And i think what i've done

Or have yet to begin

And the man i've become

And the man that i've been

Now caught in a waltz

With the eternal dancer

I'm courted by death

But death isn't the answer

I say

All i was

Meant to be

Could i

Suddenly

Just decide

Not a thought

Would survive

Could it be

My life's worth

Ended there

With my birth

If i could see someone

Who's been there before me

And traded his soul

For a moment of glory

His penance or mercy

By spirits debated

While judged on a scale

That's been heavily weighted

And what have i done

Could there be such a sin

In this man i've become

In this man that i've been

Now calling to god

From the pit's very bottom

I pray he forgives

Every sin i've forgotten

This day

And who would have thought

That my fate it would conjure

This twist in the road

On which i have wandered

Each vision and dream now

Completely dismembered

To give one's whole life

And find nothing's

Remembered

And what good is a life

That leaves nothing behind

Not a thought or a dream

That might echo in time

The years and the hours

The seconds and minutes

And everything that

My life has placed in it

Betrayed

Betrayed

Betrayed

The things i have done

The places i've been

The cost of my dreams

The weight of my sins

And everything that

I've gathered in life

Could it be lost

Could it be lost in this

Could it be lost in this

Night

[crushed by the dilemma he finds himself in and unable to reach a decision, beethoven tries to recall the particular actions in his life that have led to his damnation. in anger, he confronts fate for having dealt him such a cruel hand in life. taken a back by his accusations, she offers to review his life with him and to change anything that he wishes to change.]

[delighted with this unexpected proposition, beethoven accepts. when she asks where he would like to start, beethoven says the first thing he would change is his childhood. fate takes him back through time where he finds himself as a young child sitting at a piano. he has just been cruelly slapped by a tutor for having failed to receive an appointment to the emperor's court. his tutor is trying to create a new child wonder, similar to mozart, but unlike mozart, beethoven is an awkward and gangly youth. now, sitting alone at the piano, he is trying to console himself by playing a melody that he finds soothing. beethoven recognizes the melody as the future sixth symphony and sitting down next to the child completes the tune. the child smiles at this kindly adult and after they talk for awhile, asks if they might meet again and finish the song. beethoven reassures the child that one day that just might possibly happen.]