VNV Nation - Chosen lyrics

Orders shouted in a strange
Guttural tongue that resounded
Along the walls of the houses
Which seemed dead and deserted
While, behind the closed shutters
Eyes watched the conquerors
Who, by right of war
Were now masters of the city and of the lives
And fortunes of it's people

In their darkened ruins the inhabitants have
Given way to the same
Feeling of panic which is
Aroused by natural cataclysms, those
Devastating upheavals of the Earth
Against which wisdom and
Strength alike are of no avail

Though the same feeling is
Experienced wherever the established
Order of things is upset, when
Security ceases to exist, when all that
Was previously protected by the laws of
Man and nature is suddenly
Placed at the mercy of brutal
Unreasoning force

The earthquake
Burying a whole people beneath
The ruins of their
Houses, the river in spate
Sweeping away the bodies of drowned
Peasants, together with the carcasses of
Cattle and rafters torn from
Roofs, and the victorious army
Slaughtering all who resist, making
Prisoners of the rest, looting by
Right of the sword, and thanking their
God to the sound of cannon

All these are terrifying scourges which
Undermine all our belief in
Eternal justice and all the trust we have
Been taught to place in divine
Protection and human reason