Darkestrah - The Hidden Light

The spirits of sickness and death
Are tearing apart my flesh,
The fiends of the underworld
Are scattering my bones,
Those who reside in the black marquees
Are piercing my brain with an iron spear,
The ones with venomous tongues
Are spilling my blood over barren earth.

Then the bird with iron feathers gathers my bones
And sews my flesh together with her iron claws,
The Bird-of-Prey-Mother feeds me with my new blood
And rocks my new soul in the iron cradle.

And when my time will come,
And when my light will dusk,
The Mother will come to me
And spread her iron wings,
To carry my soul far beyond
To the lands of great shamans,
To carry my spirit far away
To the lands of the glorious dead.

Behold the conversions
Of an exalted seer,
The signs of good fortune
And omens of evil,
Behold the odd images,
Try to comprehend,
Behold and remember,
See and understand.

See, I am the black eagle
With golden wings,
I am the lord of the sky,
Terror of the field,
See, I take what I want
For I’m the one to rule,
See how I rejoice
Know that this is good.

See, I am the black snake
With golden head,
See, I am cut open,
See, I am dead,
See how my head falls
Chopped off by a sword,
Know that the bad luck
Is standing at your door.

See, I am a shaman
Saying words of might,
But Tengri stays silent,
His face is full of night,
See, I’ve gone astray
On a mountain trail,
Know that evil spirits
Are already on their way.

See, I am the Son of Heaven
Who reigns at dusk and dawn,
Behold my shining sword,
Behold my golden throne,
See the people bow down
Before my endless might,
I bring luck and victory,
I dispel the night.

Over the bridge, thin as a horse hair,
Guide me, Erlik-khan!
Over bottomless lakes, black as midnight,
Lead me, Erlik-khan!

Beyond life, beyond death, beyond reason
Guide me, Erlik-khan!
To the worlds of unseen and unspoken,
Lead me, Erlik-khan!

Fill my drum with your breath,
Fill my brain with your endless wisdom,
Tear my eyes out of sockets,
And teach me the true vision.

Fill my words with your might,
Fill my lungs with scents of decay,
Cut my flesh with your crescent-shaped axe,
And make me one with hidden worlds.

Beyond life, beyond death, beyond reason
Guide me, Erlik-khan!
To the worlds of unseen and unspoken,
Lead me, Erlik-khan!

To hold you
In trembling arms,
To speak with you
With tongue growing numb,
To follow you
Through so many lives,
To kill everyone
Who encroaches upon you.

Madness shines
From the dead and frozen forest,
Madness gleams
From a burnt abandoned village,
Madness calls
From the depths of stale waters,
Madness leads
Into the gloom of cursed barrows.

Sorny-Nay
Reigns among the frozen branches,
Vagiryoma
Rules the slopes of forbidden mountain,
Where blizzard howls
With voices of the witches,
Where shamans chant
To the blood stained idols.

Let the sparks of this fire
Dance in my breath,
Let the new vision rise
In the eyes of the dead,
Let the wind carry me
Through the vast expanse,
To where the grey spirit reigns,
To where the grey beast howls.

Let the echoes of the past
Resound in my blood,
The beat of ten thousand hooves,
The nomadic pulse,
Let those who came before me
Ride by my side,
To where the grey spirit reigns,
To where the new dawn rises.

Let the voices of the ancestors
Clang in my words,
Endless lines of generations
Joint into one single host,
Let them march with me
Till the last sea and beyond,
Let the grey spirit reign
Through the will of his sons.

Light is pouring from the eyes,
From the mouth,
From the tips of the fingers,
Light, the crushing black light,
From inside,
Inmost and hidden.

Gleam of the first shamanic fire,
Lit by gods,
Lit by no mortal hand,
Gleam of the pre-eternal source,
Of all life
In conjunction with death.

Light, only seen by the few,
By the marked,
Chosen by spirits and fiends,
Light, strange to this world,
Not from here,
Untouched by the filth.

As the air’s getting thick,
The landscape dissolves
And luminaries turning pitch black,
Doors once shut now get open,
Once lost is retrieved,
The hunter is back on his track.