Текст песни The Star of Collapse (Iapetus) с переводом

The Gravedigger’s shovel hits the dirt

The tip of his blade lingers on the surface;

Here lies the last of the unpierced soil

He begs for the strength to refuse his work

To reject his function, to forfeit his design;

He will not dig, he will not defile

Or so it goes (in his dreams);

And so it has gone (it has gone);

And so it will go (so he will dig)

He casts his eyes

Towards the scorched horizon;

An unearthly lightning splits the sky

A sick-black angel’s breath

Creeps towards the stars;

Its ghostly fingers pull down

A torch of mass-produced fire

And below its bitter light

The Gravedigger digs the graves

For all mankind

Or so it goes (in his dreams);

And so it has gone (it has gone);

And so it will go (so he will dig)

He pushes his shovel into the ground

Around him blare the trumpets of doom

Blood runs from his hands

The spade stained red;

Self-hate made manifest;

To find purpose in burying the dead

«Why?» he cries, «Why end this life?»

«Why bury innocence under an ocean of dirt?»

Behind him sounds a sinister song;

A poisonous whisper;

An answer from the stars

He turns to face what he knows is there;

She who commands his work;

The many-armed siren; angel of history;

A body of smoke, floating above the ground

«You have done this!» he declares

«You have made them this way!

You have made it so!»

«A grotesque ballet;

A play staged by choice

There is no innocence here;

No purity among men

Squandered gifts

Turned violence to virtue;

Tools of creation

Repurposed for hate.»

He stands defiant in the angel’s radiant flames

«The illusion of choice; choices made from a cage

Have you ever seen anything such as this?

The power, the beauty, the love?

Offer them another chance!

Free the potential buried here by my hands.»

«Choice within limits

As vast as the cosmos

Chances that outnumber the stars

Devolution, instead;

Reversion to primitive states

A desire for blood, the death of compassion;

Their well performed art: the harvest of pain.»

«Evolutionary impulse; can you fault them?

Reptilian brain; can they be blamed?»

«There did exist the space

For love instead of hate;

For peace instead of pain;

For empathy and grace

Some of them knew what all could know;

Most others rejected en masse

They made their choice to die;

They made their choice to dig.»

The air begins to tremble;

The ground begins to crack

The trumpets crescendo;

A storm through creation;

Swaths of existence

Ripped straight from the Earth

The angel points to the abyss

He hangs his head, the last grave left;

A choice and a chance

He drops his shovel

His mistakes can never be undone

The Gravedigger—old, broken, tired

Lowers himself into the grave

Closes his eyes

And takes his final breath

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