Panta Rhei Lyrics

To forget the law of constant change
Is like swimming against the tide
All passes, nothing remains
Yet our identity fictions abide

Here we're unable to move
Drowned in a maelstrom of pretense
Here Zeno’s turtle proves
That stillness is not a lasting defense

Although we've set an internal order
To which we try to subdue others
Our Parcae are still blind
And they claim no sire but the endless night

Far upstream, the source takes shape
In a dream or an escape

Sometimes a narrow, meandering maze
Finally widening to embrace
The horizon as a whole

Calm and warmed by the sun's gleam
Then turning to a rushing stream
Ending in a waterfall
We see attributes and their exact inverse
Rivers are called by many names
Even if their natures seem to be diverse
Water remains to stay the same

Gently, but without a moment’s respite
Drawn by the flow of time
Drop by drop, it all becomes a part
Of a future fully unknown

There's a before to everything
But nothing like a beginning
Going further onward
Is merging more with the great course

Soon downstream, in the watershed
All the rivers will coalesce

Sometimes a narrow, meandering maze
Finally widening to embrace
The horizon as a whole

Calm and warmed by the sun's gleam
Then turning to a rushing stream
Ending in a waterfall