Standing alone by the edge of a river   He's traded his life for a glass full of tears   The bargain was quick for one's life is less dearer   When the sand's running out and the ending is near      The ending is near   The ending is near   The ending is...      The man climbed aboard and set sail for the ocean   He put on the mast all the canvas she'd take   Then laid himself down on the deck neath the tiller   The ship was his coffin this moment his wake      Runaway reasons   Runaway seasons   Time is a treason      That I give back to you now      The wind touched the sail and the ship   Moved the ocean   The wind from the storm set the course she would take   From a journey to nowhere towards a soul on the ocean      From the wake of Magellan to Magellan's wake      Runaway reasons   Runaway seasons   Everything in it   Hours and minutes   You take tomorrow      Because it means nothing   To me   To me      To...      In the dark he heard a whisper   Asking him to understand   In the desert look for water   On the ocean look for land      In the dark he heard a whisper   Asking him to understand   In the desert look for water   On the ocean look for land      And there in the waves   Was a man in his grave   That he saw in the night   'Tween the flashes of light   And he      Could not be there      And all he had prayed      Or had given away   He now found to be wrong   In the grip of the storm   And he   Could not be there      Could you keep our lives together   Safely back onto the shore   Could you grant this last illusion   Only this and nothing more      Could you keep our lives together   Safely back onto the shore   Could you grant this last illusion   Only this and nothing more      And all at once the heavens bled their fire   The anchor broke the chains they flew away   And suddenly the waves were reaching higher   And in the dark I thought I heard them say      Could you keep our lives together   Safely back onto the shore   Could you grant this last illusion   Only this and nothing more      But what the sailor did not know   And would never learn   Was on that beach now far away   The young child had returned      And finding the broken hourglass   He reset it upright   Then placed sand from the beach inside   And placed the lid on tight      Then examining his handiwork   He left it in the sand   And then he quickly ran back home   Thinking god would understand      Everything I ever had for one more tomorrow   Everything I ever had for just one more night   And if this is not to be I pray could I borrow   Just another final hour onto my life      Did you ever really want to   Did you ever really want to      Lord, tell me how it will be   Lord, tell me how it will be      Standing once more by a boat on a river   He pushes it off while he stays on the land   And seeing the hourglass now so much clearer      Which someone had refilled by hand      And somewhere that boat's now adrift on the   Ocean      The mast at full sail and there's no one on board   The hourglass no longer sits by the ocean   Only his footprints all alone on the shore   And soon they're no more   No more      No more      Now our story's nearly over   And we've reached the final scene   But we're sure that some have wondered   What had happened in-between      From the moment when the boy was saved   And their boat had reached the shore   Well, they talked about life and death      And perhaps a little more      The boy said he'd been a stowaway   Aboard the "maersk dubai"   When the captain had him thrown to the sea   And left him there to die      At this the old sailor had stood up   His face now filled with rage   And swore that he would never rest   Until that captain had been caged      But the boy implored the sailor   That he not say a word   Because he was an illegal immigrant   And as of recently he'd heard      That going to the authorities   Could often be unwise   When one's paper were illegal   The police just might not sympathize      So when they reached the harbor   With their journey at an end   He left the boy on another ship   Whose captain was a friend      And when he saw it pull to sea   And was once more all alone   He leaned against the tiller   And turned his ship back home      Eventually he reached that beach   He'd left the night before   Then stepped a last time from the boat   And waded to the shore      Then the old man picked the glass up   That he had left behind   And headed for the small cafe   For it was nearly time      And the ocean watched him leaving   To find his lady fair   And as he left he heard her last words   Drifting in the air      That every man      Is born you see   Beneath the sword      Damocles      For young and old   Are all alive   On that next beat      On which we ride      And that beat is such   A fragile thing   In both old men   Or youthful king      And that beat      Stands all alone you see      Between us      And black eternity      And until that time   When death won't wait   Let each man rage      Against his fate