(chorus)*
Jeder Engel ist schrecklich.
Und dennoch, weh mir, ansing ich euch, fast tödliche
Vögel der Seele, wissend um euch.
Eyes all aflame, onward they came \
riding on rust and steel \
Sweat, blood on their brow, christens them now \
to walk on a fallow field \
the ground lays lifeless
(chorus)
Their hearts run with sand \
all the past years had granted them no reprieve \
Consigned to this hell \
knowing full well that they would never leave \
yet now the wind blows
(chorus)
Here's freedom the word \
here's freedom the sound, here's freedom the unlocked door \
With their souls in the ground \
what have they found? and what is this freedom for? \
the smell still lingers
(chorus)
Saviors standing still \
the saved staring back; their captors had long since gone \
Numbers on their wrists \
ashes and mists lent color to one more dawn \
through wind-tossed wires
(chorus)
* (The chorus, as may be perhaps obvious, isn't
by me, but instead the fine, fine German poet Rainier Maria Rilke. There's
a pretty good translation of both the Elegies at http://www.isp.nwu.edu/~laura/duino.html,
if you're interested.)