The Light in Darkness
1996 Dec 02
This is a shadow version of "The Sounds of Silence" by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.
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Deep in Silence, my old friend, a thought has come to me again;
It has come to me unbidden, from the place where it was hidden,
and the secrets of wisdom still untold
it will unfold...within the realm of darkness.
As I sat in solitude in a melancholy mood,
deep into my inner soul I dove and toward the inner light I strove,
when my ears were assailed by the thump and the boom of drums
of one who comes...to shed some light in darkness.
And o'er the drums I heard a roar from a million throats or more.
And the people cried out to be taught, to be granted answers that they sought,
but in the place that the people had prepared
no one dared...challenge the rule of darkness.
But then a lonely griot came and called an unfamiliar name.
And the music rose up in a swell for the story the griot had to tell
and his words, like sparks, lit up the night;
it's only right...to defy the will of darkness.
And the people rocked and rolled to the vision they were told;
on the stage the griot bobbed and swayed to the rhythm that the drums had made
and the griot said "the will of the people is chanted in a hip-hop rhyme
in four-four time...and illuminates the darkness".
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Here, for reference, I include the lyrics to "The Sound of Silence", written by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel in 1964 for their first album, "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.:
Hello, Darkness, my old friend. I've come to talk with you again,
because a vision softly creeping left its seeds while I was sleeping
and the vision that was planted in my brain
still remains...within the sound of silence.
In restless dreams I walked along narrow streets of cobble-stone.
'Neath the halo of a street lamp I turned my collar to the cold and damp,
when my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
that split the night and touched the sound of silence;
And in the naked light I saw ten thousand people, maybe more,
people talking without speaking, people hearing without listening,
people writing songs that voices never shared;
no one dared...disturb the sound of silence.
"Fools," said I, "you do not know: the silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you, take my arms that I might reach you",
but my words like silent raindrops fell
...and echoed in the well of silence.
And the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made
and the sign flashed out its warning in the words that it was forming
and the sign said the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
and tenement halls and whispered the sound of silence.
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