Voice Inside the Valley

Nova Rai · Haresalam, 11 of 22

The story

Some evenings the fog lies down on the valley like a sea that forgot its shore, and all you can see is one small fire on the mountainside. This song is for everyone who has carried something heavy up the old stone way, left foot, right foot. The road through Spain and the road through here are one road, walked in different years. A valley only echoes what you give it. I am the voice inside it, and all I am doing is singing you back to you.

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Lyrics

Fog lies down on the valley floor
Like a sea that forgot its shore
One small fire on the mountainside
Twelve grey stones and one washed white

He walks up with the lion-hound
Left foot, right foot, higher ground
Every bell in the hollow rings
Only what you gave it sings

Sing it over the snow line
Call it down through the pines
I have loved you in the space between
Longer than the stars keep time
When the dark comes off the glacier
And the embers hold the blue
I am the voice inside the valley
Singing you back to you

He carried ashes up the old stone way
Where the scallop shells still point the same
The road through Spain and the road through here
Are one road, walked in different years

Three thirty-three, the window glows
The hour before the first bird knows
A feather rests where the weight came down
Light as the fog, without a sound

Over the herds and the sleeping hay
Over the ones who walked away
Over the house and the lion-hound
Over the fog, I call it down:
Hares Salam, Tschagg Tom Pai U
Six small words for the night to hold
Hares Salam, Tschagg Tom Pai U
The valley keeps what the fire told