What I Was Afraid Of · Track 48 · middle
Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi
Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi — Japanese Imperial Regalia sword. Register: myth. This song is sung BY this weapon, in first person, about the one thing IT was afraid of. Find the fear that is true of this specific object, not a generic one.
No audio yet — generation pending.
Lyrics
[Intro] [Verse 1] I was born in the dark of a severed spine. Drawn wet from the meat in the river mud. I am older than the paper that lines the shrine, Older than the names of their waking gods. No fingers have grazed my steel in a thousand springs. They carry the chest. They bow to the wood. They worship the shape of unseen things. [Chorus] But I feel the trembling in the priest's knee. The quiet terror of the unwrapping. What if you open the dark, and look at me? What if the brocade falls, and it all is ruin? Would you go blind, or would I just be rust? Leave me in the shadow. Leave me in the dust. [Verse 2] I remember the heat of the burning grass. The roaring field I leveled to save the myth. Now I listen to the felted footsteps pass, Bound in thirty-three layers of raw silk, going stiff. Unheld for an age, my schema bleeds through the pine. I map my heavy balance directly into the hands of men who only touch the box. They feel the cutting. They never see the line. [Chorus] And I feel the trembling in the priest's knee. The quiet terror of the unwrapping. What if you open the dark, and look at me? What if the brocade falls, and it all is ruin? Would you go blind, or would I just be rust? Leave me in the shadow. Leave me in the dust. [Bridge] The emperor takes the throne, but he turns his face. I am a silent anchor in a shrouded room. My power is the heavy, untouched space. If the cord is untied, the whole island might slip. The magic is only alive in the grip Of a hand that refuses to look. [Outro] Keep your eyes on the floor. Do not ask what I am for. I am afraid of the light. I am afraid of the air. Don't look to see if I am there, Because I might not be.