The Silence Of The Dawn

You’re here at last
To me you were a stranger
A famous story people like to tell
They tried to paint your picture through the ages
Reality is different, here you are

We thought you were for sale, so highly useful
We wrote your name on banners for the war
We raised cathedrals almost into heaven
But you were always moving further down

You are a child abandoned in a shelter
You’ll freeze to death unless we get involved
You touch our aching bodies, fight for justice
And say to others taste my flowing wine.

You’re coming out of every empty graveyard
You are a wind announcing spring will come
A refugee returning through the mountains
Rebuilding what was broken in the war

You are a song we almost had forgotten
A story of a true life we betrayed
I hid the mirror, now I look into it
And find the scares, your fire in my face

Come closer, stand by me, it’s getting closer
And maybe light will grow again once more
Your light will see me through - I hear a blackbird
He’s singing in the silence of the dawn.

Music: Benny Andersson
Lyric: Björn Ulvaeus
Vocal: Ludvig Andersson

© 2001 Mono Music AB

Performed by Benny Andersson Band at Sounds Of Sweden
Big Bad World 2001 · Glasgow's Festival of World Music
October 2001