Fall of the Leafe EVANESCENT, EVERFADING Lyrics by Jani Lindström Written probably 1996-1997 Here, the beginning and the ending of the story are printed without permission. THE CELESTIAL KEEPER The Moon and Sun are gone from us, and all the stars withdraw, leaving us mere reflections of astral light. As the twilight groves behind grow out of sight, I, in blind fury, in malevolent wrath, flee through the archways of self-deceit, into the starlit lands beyond the gate, where the sculptures of ice and snow await me. Northwards my paths took me, unto realms where all hope forsook me. Tumbling… befallen, I was at loss on these paths everdark! Shivering, in tears I beheld the sight of shocking brilliance starbright with shimmering beams of fragmented light. In the everwhite whirlpool of the Celestial Keeper, wavering in the high domes above, She is the astral flow upon the firmanent in evermotion. She is the heavenly eidolon of beauty - and despair - high above these merely mortal realms. Northstar - in solitude, in unspeakable forms manifested unto me! Polestar, my perpetual Goddess who calls out to us… Yet how could I ever begin to grasp the might that overcomes all borders and limits of existence? How could I ever be alike the celestial ones that are free of all sorrows of substance? The passing of my heart is at hand, into the vaults of the nightly sky, to dance with the four winds and the gods and goddesses of the stars. Lovesick and compelled to leave behind these lands I bid farewell. Let thee well die. For I join immortal ornaments of the heavens above, as a new day dawns on the mortal lands, beyond the sight of the Celestial Keeper. EVANESCENT, EVERFADING (Reflections Of The Wanderer/The Passing Of The Newborn God) I am come into these celestial lands; the dreaded journey is at an end. Time has passed, ages gone and lost, and the wandered returns to his home within the dead sky, to behold as, at the starlit dawn, Lucifer, the morning star, welcomes the Moon and Sun to return. The night is passed and I am as the last shadows to dwell underneath the foliage of the mighty Oaks and the boughs of the Elms of old. Evanescent, Everfading are my lays and all that I have achieved. And how could blind eyes see the grandeur, deaf ears hearken the sound? To such senses does my life ring unto and all the waves I leave behind. Wearied I am, with all hope long departed, all zest long gone. Where could I go ere I fade? Wither could the starborne paths ever take me that I would find more, to find nothingness, the true existence of All. Alike my Goddess, one with pain and sorrow, one with joy and ardour, hands joined in a union of strangers, we walk onwards, yet our horizon is bleak, sundered and bloody. Evanescent, Everfading are the autumntide colours that bleed upon us. Like a wailing wind the maidens of Fall awaken from their sleep. And the night remembers… I walked on the shore of the flaming sea… and dreamt upon the sands of burning sorrow. Soon they are gone, with only show to usher us into the sleep of the eviternal Winternight that is yet to come… O Winterwind, will you caress me? Your somber songs are like dreams that pass oh so swiftly, dead dreams, the hollow sky… I am one with the thousand sagas of the crimson age, I am one with the songs of the whirling, now dying season, I am Evanescent, Everfading.