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A voice from down the ages
So haunting in its song
These ancient stones will tell us
Our love must make us strong
The breeze it wrapped around me
As I stood there on the shore
And listened to this voice
Like I never heard before
Our battles they may find us
No choice may ours to be
But hold the banner proudly
The truth will set us free
My mind was called across the years
Of rages and of strife
And of all the human misery
And all the waste of life
We wondered where our God was
In the face of so much pain
And I looked up to the stars above
To find you once again
We travelled the wide oceans
Heard many call your name
With sword and gun and hatred
It all seemed much the same
Some used your name for glory
Some used it for their gain
Yet when liberty lay wanting
No lives were lost in vain
Is it not our place to wonder
As the sky does weep with tears
And all the living creatures
Look on with mortal fear
It is ours to hold the banner
It is ours to hold it long
It is ours to carry forward
Our love must make us strong
And as the warm wind carried
Its song into the night
I closed my eyes and tarried
Until the morning light
As the last star it shimmered
And the new sun's day gave birth
It was in this magic moment
Came this prayer for mother earth
Reprise:
The moonlight it was dancing
On the waves, out on the sea
The stars of heaven hovered
In a shimmering galaxy
And a voice from down the ages
So haunting in its song
These ancient stones will tell us
Our love will make us strong
music and lyrics: Loreena McKennitt
From: An ancient muse (2006).
Source of the lyrics: the
official
website,
with some six minor corrections to fit what Loreena actually sings
[with thanks to Doug Maus for two of these].
The song can also be found on The journey so far - The Best of Loreena McKennitt (2014).
Loreena McKennitt's commentary on the song, taken from the
transcript of an audio interview:
There's a piece called "Beneath A Phrygian Sky" that was inspired by my visit to an archaeological site near Gordion just outside of Ankara in Turkey, in Anatolia. And as with various archaeological sites that I visited, I'd be standing there looking at stones -- and on one level they're just stones but you can't help but feel that these stones have been witness to extraordinary periods of history. And in this archaeological site near Gordion they had uncovered some Celtic ruins but it appears that they weren't quite sure whether, in fact, this was a permanent Celtic settlement or if indeed that this was a contingency of mercenaries. For the Celts were well known to be very, very fearsome warriors and that often were off battling other people's wars. And so this theme of stones, this theme of wars, why people go to war, but also the reflection that surely there's enough history behind us, and embodied in that history enough lessons in it, that we should be able to be learning and improving and not making the same mistakes over and over again. So this song is as much a rumination of these threads as it is any definitive statement. But it reaches towards -- if there is one thing that can and should carry us forward, it is a concept of love.© 2006, Quinlan Road Ltd.
Jos van Geffen --
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