The fire of freedom's burning lower,
No longer yearnings push us on.
Our visions wear the peaceful faces
Of childhood lost and safety won.
Far off we hear the echoes dying,
Mem'ries of hopes that could not last,
And though we're ready for the journey
We turn and look back at our past.
One song for the life that we've been chasing,
And one for our passions young and blind,
One song for each star we counted falling,
One song for the dreams we leave behind.
Calmly we watch our world collapsing,
Our tears and laughter are in chime,
A gentle grief, a distant sorrow,
A pain that ebbs away in time.
Each step determined our direction,
We missed a million other ways.
The road ahead is straight and even,
A sense of loss is all that stays.
One song for those tears of love and longing,
And one for the journeys of our mind,
One song for each night we shared in wonder,
One song for the dreams we leave behind.
Tonight there's as much past as future.
Good-bye beliefs to which we've clung.
We calmly bear our mem'ry's burden
And feel we are no longer young.
Time to let go of used emotions,
Of fading hopes and worn-out dreams.
Over the years we've stopped believing
That life is more than what it seems.
One song for the young who are still searching,
And one for the others of our kind,
One more for the old and lost and weary,
One song for the dreams we leave behind.
One song for the friends we have forgotten,
One song for a love we'll never find,
One song for the songs we sang together
And one for the dreams we leave behind.
For Birgit and Uli – April 16th, 2000