Chosen Songtext

von VNV Nation

Order is shattered in a strange gutteral tone
Resounded along the walls of the houses,
Which seemed dead and deserted, while,
Behind the closed shutters,
Eyes watched the conquerers, who, by right of war,
Were now masters of the city - of the lives
And fortunes of its people.

In their darkened ruins the inhabitants
Have given way to the same feeling of panic
Which is aroused by natural cataclysms.
Those devestating upheavals of the earth,
Against which wisdom and strength alike
Are of no avail.

For the same feeling is experienced wherever
The established order of things is upset,
When security ceases to exist,
When all that was previously protected by the laws
Of man or nature is suddenly placed at the mercy
Of brutal, unreasoning force:

The earthquake, burying a whole people beneath
The ruins of their houses; the river in spate,
Sweeping the bodies of drowned peasants,
Together with the carcasses of cattle and
Rafters torn from roofs; or the victorious
Army slaughtering all who resist, making prisoners
Of the rest, looting by right of the sword,
And thanking their god to the sound of cannon.

All these are terrifying scourges which
Undermine all our belief in eternal justice
And all the trust we have been tought to place
In divine protection and human reason.