(Verse 1)
In fourteen twenty in the 永乐reign
A bell was cast with every soldier's name
Ten years I walked to gather every sound
To carve the fallen into bronze unbound
I struck the bell it echoed through the air
But told myself: it needs a partner there
(Verse 2)
So I cast a smaller bell to send away
With an envoy sailing westward into spray
I said:"When you are far across the sea
Ring this bell and the great bell rings with me"
Six hundred years the envoy never came
But the bells still vibrate with his name
(Chorus)
The stars don't answer but the bronze still sings
A frequency that travels without wings
Bell and star bell and star
No distance is too far for what we are
(Verse 3)
I am the astronaut who carries now
The little bell I don't remember how
It came to me just something from the past
A family thing that's meant to always last
Outside the station I give it a tap
The vacuum swallows sound but not the map
(Bridge All instruments drop only a single bell strike decay Voice speaks softly in Chinese then English )
(In Chinese as if reading an ancient edict)
凡阵亡将士悉录其名铸于钟永世不忘
(All fallen soldiers their names recorded cast into the bell never forgotten for all time )
(In English softly)
I am still ringing are you still there
(Final Chorus Full bell resonance guqin harmonics synth drone voice in canon with its own delay)
(Outro The great bell decays The guqin plays four notes of the motif then stops Synth sequence continues alone A tiny bell rings in the distance the small bell in space answering )
bell and star
