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rise 8 times (the song)

rise 8 times is the title song of guru vasist’s debut album of the same name...click here for the album overview...

the song rise 8 times is the story of a little girl in Tohoku, Japan...who, having miraculously survived the tsunami, looks around expectantly for her parents in a pile of wood where her home used to be...as she clambers to the top of the pile, she sees an endless junkyard, where fifteen thousand dreams were crushed in the blink of an eye...a solitary sign-board stands with zen-like stoicism -- “you may fall seven times, but rise eight times”...

 

this song is dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the people of Tohoku, Japan, who overcame the 2011 tsunami

song lyrics:

 

aus­tere and ti­dy homes,

with porch­es and pret­ty win­dows

strong wom­en and har­dy men

in the town of the ris­ing sun

 

be­ware the ides of march!

the earth shifts be­neath

a crush­ing wall of wa­ter heaves

and brings the town to its knees

 

still, all the peo­ple feel,

they may fall sev­en times,

but rise eight times!

nev­er sur­ren­der their spir­it,

a hal­lowed land they’ll in­her­it

 

peo­ple lose all their means -

chil­dren, homes, and dreams

yet they search through the rub­ble

to make sense of this strug­gle

 

the food is­n’t fresh an­y­more,

the wa­ter’s sour and im­pure

the air’s foul, no de­ny­ing,

but the spir­it remains un­dy­ing

 

coz, all the peo­ple believe,

they may fall sev­en times,

but rise eight times!

nev­er sur­ren­der their spir­it,

a hal­lowed land they’ll in­her­it

 

all the people believe

they may fall seven times

but rise eight times!

(repeats)

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