[Intro]
(Strings sustain a gentle G minor chord, piano ripples like water—10s)

[Verse 1]
O river of shadows, unbound and unseen,
Where lies your beginning, your dawn’s hidden gleam?
No cradle of earth holds your wandering stream,
No harbor awaits where your currents convene.
You carve through the silence, no fetter, no chain,
A house without walls in the endless refrain—
Do you pause for the stones that your waters embrace,
Or rush to the void, leaving no trace?

[Chorus]
Whence comes your homeland, your infinite shore?
Does your journey cease, or forever endure?
Each bank fades to another, in sorrow’s thin veil,
For those lost in crossing, no truth shall prevail.
You mock my illusions of joy and of pain,
In your depths, all dissolves—neither loss nor true gain.
O tide of the cosmos, in you I am free,
A mere ripple fading on eternity’s sea.

[Verse 2]
No hearth calls you homeward, no fetters confine,
You roam where the wild winds and starlight align.
In flood you consume, in your ebb you bestow,
The giver, the taker—what truths do you know?
I deemed you my mirror, a fleeting refrain,
Yet you laugh at my fears, unbound by my chain.
Through time’s fragile weaving, its knots come undone—
Am I but a wavelet, adrift in your run?

[Chorus]
Whence comes your homeland, your infinite shore?
Does your journey cease, or forever endure?
Each bank fades to another, in sorrow’s thin veil,
For those lost in crossing, no truth shall prevail.
You mock my illusions of joy and of pain,
In your depths, all dissolves—neither loss nor true gain.
O tide of the cosmos, in you I am free,
A mere ripple fading on eternity’s sea.

[Bridge]
(Piano softens, oboe weaves a plaintive line—25s)
Why cling to the shores when the waters must part?
All joy and all grief are but waves of the heart.
No exile in motion, no crown in repose—
We merge with the current where silence arose.
Let questions grow still, let the seeking unfold…
In the river’s deep truth, all is one, ever old.

[Final Chorus]
(A cappella start, strings join softly—20s)
O tide of the cosmos… in you I am free…
A mere ripple fading… on eternity’s sea.

[Outro]
(Harp glissando, strings fade to silence—5s)