Joanna Newsom – Time, As a Symptom Lyrics

Joanna Newsom – Time, As a Symptom Lyrics

Time, As a Symptom Lyrics by Joanna Newsom

Time, As a Symptom is the final track on Joanna Newsom’s 2015 album, Divers.

The track brings the album full circle and clarifies the theme of the entire album.

The track is noticeable for elements such as the Mourning Dove calls, the reference of Nightjars which symbolizes the cyclic nature of the album, and the final line of the song leading into the first track of the album: Anecdotes.

(Mourning Dove calls)

Time passed hard
And the task was the hardest thing she’d ever do
But she forgot
The moment she saw you

So it would seem to be true:
When cruel birth debases, we forget
When cruel death debases
We believe it erases all the rest
That precedes

But stand brave, life-liver
Bleeding out your days
In the river of time
Stand brave:
Time moves both ways

In the nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life;
The nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life

The moment of your greatest joy sustains:
Not axe nor hammer
Tumor, tremor
Can take it away, and it remains
It remains

And it pains me to say, I was wrong
Love is not a symptom of time
Time is just a symptom of love

(and the nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life;
The nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life)

Hardly seen, hardly felt–
Deep down where your fight is waiting
Down ’till the light in your eyes is fading:
Joy of life
Where I know that you can yield, when it comes down to it;
Bow like the field when the wind combs through it:
Joy of life
And every little gust that chances through
Will dance in the dust of me and you
With joy-of-life
And in our perfect secret-keeping:
One ear of corn
In silent, reaping
Joy of life

Joy! Again, around–a pause, a sound–a song:
A way a lone a last a loved a long
A cave, a grave, a day: arise, ascend
(Areion, Rharian, go free and graze. Amen.)

A shore, a tide, unmoored–a sight, abroad:
A dawn, unmarked, undone, undarked (a god)
No time. No flock. No chime, no clock. No end
White star, white ship–Nightjar, transmit: transcend!

White star, white ship–Nightjar, transmit: transcend!
White star, white ship–Nightjar, transmit: transcend!
White star, white ship–Nightjar, transmit: trans-