SoundMojo - Music, Reimagined

"Nightingale Over Tehran" (from @soundmojo's forthcoming ERAN: Iran Reclaimed) My heart lies numb beneath foreign skies A quiet ache I can’t disguise The streets I knew still call my name But distance turns love into flame. Through fractured lines your voices bleed In whispered prayers I cannot heed A mother weeps where shadows fall And I am here… and hear it all. I drink from time, from memory’s vine But exile is a bitter wine No dream, no sleep, no borrowed grace Can take me back to that sacred place. Oh nightingale, sing over Tehran Carry their souls where I cannot stand Through ash and silence, through endless cries Tell them we see them, we won’t close our eyes. If hope is fading, if hearts grow still Let your song climb the silent hills And if I falter, if I lose sight Sing me back to the edge of light. January burned in crimson air A thousand ghosts still linger there Shoes left empty, voices gone A nation wounded… yet holding on. I see their faces in every crowd Defiant, broken, unbowed, unbowed And I sit safe in borrowed peace While their suffering does not cease. I close my eyes but cannot flee The weight of what they ask of me To speak, remember, not let go To carry a truth they’ll never know. Oh nightingale, sing over Tehran For those who fell, for those who stand Through blood and sorrow, through fear and flame Let history echo every name. If tomorrow trembles, far from sight Be their voice in the longest night And if I break beneath the weight Sing me back before it’s too late Was it a dream… or waking grief? This distant calm, this stolen relief What right have I to breathe, to be While they are chained and I am free? Yet still a spark refuses death It flickers softly with each breath For even in the darkest night A song can outlive endless night. Oh nightingale, don’t fade away Not yet, not now, there’s more to say For every voice they tried to still Echoes louder, echoes still. And if one day the chains all fall And freedom answers freedom’s call I’ll find my way through tears and light Guided by you… through endless night. Was it a dream… or are they free? Do I wake… or remember me?