Tarkus (Eruption / Stones of Years / Iconoclast / Manticore / The Battlefield / Aquatarkus) Songtext
von Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Has the dawn ever seen your eyes?
Have the days made you so unwise?
Realize, you are

Had you talked to the winds of time
Then you′d know how the waters rhyme
Taste of wine

How can you know where you've been?
In time you′ll see the sign
And realize your sin

Will you know how the seed is sown?
All your time has been overgrown
Never known

Have you walked on the stones of years?
When you speak, is it you that hears?
Are your ears full?

You can't hear anything at all

The preacher said a prayer
Save every single hair on his head
He's dead


The minister of hate had just arrived too late to be spared
Who cared?
The weaver in the web that he made

The pilgrim wandered in
Commiting every sin that he could
So good

The cardinal of grief was set in his belief he′d saved
From the grave
The weaver in the web that he made

The high priest took a blade
To bless the ones that prayed
And all obeyed

The messenger of fear is slowly growing, nearer to the time
A sign
The weaver in the web that he made

A bishops rings a bell
A cloak of darkness fell across the ground
Without a sound

The silent choir sing and in their silence
Bring jaded sound, harmonic ground
The weaver in the web that he made


Clear the battlefield and let me see
All the profit from our victory
You talk of freedom, starving children fall
Are you deaf when you hear the season′s call?

Were you there to watch the earth be scorched?
Did you stand beside the spectral torch?
Know the leaves of sorrow turned their face
Scattered on the ashes of disgrace

Every blade is sharp; the arrows fly
Where the victims of your armies lie
Where the blades of brass and arrows reign
Then there will be no sorrow
Be no pain