Koyaanisqatsi - Lyrics

By Stefan Wetterau

I. Intro

- The Indian:-
When we dig out prescious things
We will reap tremendous harm
A box full of ashes may fall from the sky
Burn the soil and stir the sea

II. My comfortable prison

I'm cowering here midst the collection
From a quarter of this century
During this time I've done nothing
But was always punctual
I've made my way on stony paths
And didn't find out how
I'm successful, beloved and strong
But something is missing now

In the protecting warmth of my arm-chair
I've locked the world outside
And let the filtered truth
Flicker across my screen

Just little's getting through to me
Just rags can reach my mind
But even the bitterst scenes
Are swallowed by indifference

And with the fading lights
The confines fade away
And in the darkness of this night
The walls start to decay  

III. The Freak

Out of the corner of my eye
I recognize a face
Gazingsecretly through my window
A sinister grimace

As I turn my head to see the creature
The face has already disappeared
I didn't see its features
The boundaries between reality and dream
Crumble quickly to dust
My eyelids are closing
My mind's composing
A play in a scenery
That's too vast for me

(Sound of the T.V. set)
"Ich ... ich erkläre Ihnen!"
"Dann sind wir uns ja einig, okay?"
"...wenn man so einen riesigen Staubsauger die Straße reinigen sieht..."
"In der Brennkammer..."
"Juwelier bei dreistem Raubüberfall getötet!"
"...Gas sind an jedes Schwefelatom zwei Sauerstoffatome...-
...zur Schwefelsäureherstellung..."

IV. Fearless Warrior

The sun is burning my neck
I see the desert all around
My feet are leaving traces
In the sand that covers the ground
I'm heading down South
To find someone out there
Someone who can tell me
Which strains I'll have to bear

- Chorus:-
So what am I doing here
Dressed in a uniform, a warrior without fear?

On my back I'm carrying my weapons
A bow and arrow and an axe
I never had to use them in my world
But I guess that it takes ...

- Chorus:-
These arms to survive in this world out here
So I take this part of the Warrior without Fear
The Warrior without Fear
What am I doing here?

Two sharply divided worlds are glittering in the distance
Something warm and something cold
The one suppressed by the other
Something new hides something old

- Chorus:-
I'm gonna find out what's brought me here
Until then I'm the Warrior without Fear

V. Superficiality

l. Walking upon the surface

Stainless façades to the left
Stainless façades to the right
I'm walking down those tidy streets
There's nothing that could destroy this scene of purity

Contented people smile at me
Full little children are playing in the alleys
There's nothing that could destroy this naive happiness

2. Wrong

A sedan-chair crosses my way
Carried by some well-paid men
A princess greets her subjects
The bells are tolling in the distance
And the statues run to the stone
To square their conscience

- Chorus:-
A well-kept parasite in the desert
Living at the expense of its surroundings
And as a reward for that
They're fed with its excrements
Something went wrong...

This splendour can't deceive my eye
And even the coat of the evening
Is not able to hide it all
I'm walking on, don't want to stay
Although I know that what I'll see
Is worse than what I see

- Chorus:-
A well-kept parasite in the desert
Living at the expense of its surroundings
And as a reward for that
They're fed with its excrements
Now, what went wrong?...

VI. The other side

1. Looking for some peace

No end in sight, captured by the labyrinth
I'm hastening through the night
Persecuted by the cries of a little child
I run and close my eyes
Finally, in a dead-end street
I fall asleep

2. Nightmare

A dreamless sleep
Restless and feverish
Because the certainty to wake up in the unknown
Crushes the body like an incubus
(Dreams of Koyaanisqatsi)

3. Victims of the present

I wake up under a different sky
Upon the same old soil
The pavement's cold, my body screams
But it's not the only one

A woman in rags is sitting some feet away
Her dead hand is still opened
And while it's begging for alms
It can't grasp anymore
The other hand's holding the crying child

With empty eyes she's staring at the sky
As if she wanted to ask why
And as I see the vultures in the air
I take the child and run away

VII. The Eve of Doomsday

1. Stubborn

The walls of this majestic station burned down to the ground
And people react with exasperation
But I, I can only frown

'Cos no train has stopped here
For more than thirty years
And even this conflagration
Accelerating disintegration
Will at last belong to the past

2. I don't want to hear him
I pick up the shaft of my cart again
And leave this place, impenitence
I'm walking down a crowded street
Unpleasant heat, restless feet
All that I've got is this cart and my name
Got no aim, got no claim
My legs are tired and my head aches
Morning breaks, the world awakes

A casual poor is going my way
I look at him and he seems to be astray
But I don't want to hear him, I don't want to be near him
Because what he says is hurting my mind

While I'm increasing my paces imperceptibly
He keeps telling me a few plain truths
I take a different way, don't look back, don't want to stay
Where truth destroys my peace

3. Human

Filthy shouting of boozers (-burps-)
Penetrating through a pub window (-motherfucker-)
Orphaned children beat each other
To get a crumb of bread
The garbage piled up in the streets causes strong nausea

4. Our own special way of celebrating (no matter what the occasion is)

I reach the market-place
And a thousand impressions tumble down on me

The crowd is dancing around a large vat
Where corpses are cooking and the soup's growing fat
Some are still living, but drown in the brew
Their arms beg for help, but there's nothing to do
And I come to know they're all volunteers
They just want to die, escape the final years
With horror I leave into the beginning day
'Cos this is the Eve of Doomsday

VIII. Last act

1. Emptiness

I'm coming through a dead forest
Burned matches tower in the smoky air
Life said good-bye to these trees
Forever, won't come back again

I'm going slower, the child is silent
With its eyes it stares at me and the world
I want to justify what happened
But I don't know what happened at all

2. Legitimate accusations

A small dwarf is sitting at a lake
Throwing stones into the water
As he sees me his look grows dark
And he starts to scold me

- The Dwarf:-
Now that you are the only one
Look around, see what you've done
My friends and me, the things you see
Suffer from your hypocrisy
You've reached the point of no return
Can't go back anymore
So take a look across the lake
And you will see that I don't fake the truth

3. Closing

Hopeless soldiers are performing their last duty
And march in rank and file to hell
Cauterizing rain falls from the sky
Eating up the last green fields
Giant mushrooms shoot up from the earth
Take with them what remained
They're just the very last consequence
Of what we've done to ourselves

IX. Return?

The walls are back, the rustling's again there in my ears
I open my eyes to see the things I know
Still it's dark outside, just a street lantern's shining in
I'm looking at the T.V. screen
And the Freak's staring at me

- The Newsreader: -
Maybe the very last news ever: After the global peace negotiations have
finally failed, the whole world's countries have declared the state of war.
Recently we received the message that big cities and military aims in the
entire world have been obliterated by the first falling atom bombs and that
complete regions have been rubbed out. And one can fear, that this
is just the beginning of...

X. Just a dream

1. Twilight

Let me use my eyes
Let me take off this disguise
I'm walking through these ruins
These lonely hills of dust
Nothing could survive
Play my part in an imaginary movie
No one will arrive

Still this state of trance
Is there any chance?

The child is back
And I can't forget
How it looked at me
Now I know and I regret
What I've done - what we've done
And the understanding rushes down on me

2. I'm alive

I can't change the world
But I can still play my part
There's so much to do
And I'll try very hard

So much false promises
We've made in the past
Regrets we didn't feel
The future was not to last

Think of your children
When you close your eyes

I'm alive - I leave this cell
Present myself outside

I'm alive - I'll give up this lifestyle
To catch some falling souls

I've lived my life in a state of paralysis
Numb and blind
But now I'm the one who realizes
I'm alive