G# C#m B E B
Citadel reverberates to a thousand voices, now dumb:
A G#
what have we become? What have we chosen to be?
C#m B E B
Now, all history is reduced to the syllables of our name -
A G#
nothing can ever be the same now the Immortals are here.
C#m B
At the time, it seemed a reasonable course
B A
to harness all the force of life without the threat of death,
G#
but soon we found
that boredom and inertia are not negative,
C#m
but all the law we know
B A
and dead are Will and words like survival.
G# C#m B E B
Arrival at immunity from all age, all fear and all end....
A G#
Why do I pretend? Our essence is distilled
C#m B
and all familiar taste is now drained
E B A
and though purity is maintained it leaves us sterile,
C#m B
living through the millions of years,
B
a laugh as close as any tear....
A
Living, if you claim that all that entails is
G#
breathing, eating, defecating, screwing, drinking,
B
spewing, sleeping, sinking ever down and down
A
and ultimately passing away time
which no longer has any meaning.
B-C#m B
Take away the threat of death
B-C#m B
and all you're left with is a round of make-believe;
B-C#m B
marshal every sullen breath
B-C#m B
and though you're ultimately bored by endless ecstasy
B-C#m B
that's still the ring by which you hope to be engaged
B-C#m B C#m
to marry the girl who will give you forever -
B C#m
that's crazy, and plainly
B A5-G#5-F#5-E5
it simply is not
F# C# E5-D#5-C#-B
enough.
F# C# E5-D#5-C#-B x?
Bm A
G# C#m
What is the dullest and bluntest of pains,
B E B
such that my eyes never close without feeling it there?
A G# C#m
What abject despair demands an end to all things of infinity?
B E B
If we have gained, how do we now meet the cost?
A
What have we bargained, and what have we lost?
G#
What have we relinquished, never even knowing it was there?
C#m B
What chance now of holding fast the line,
B
defying death and time
A
when everything we had is gone?
G#
Everything we laboured for and favoured more
C#m
than earthly things reveals the hollow ring
B A
of false hope and of false deliverance.
C#m B
But now the nuptial bed is made,
B
the dowry has been paid;
A G#
the toothless, haggard features of Eternity
now welcome me between the sheets
B a g#
to couple with her withered body - my wife.
g# a f# g#
Hers forever,
f# g# e f#
hers forever,
e f# e d#
hers forever
d# e C#m
in still life.