The Cloud Of Unknowing
Current 93

And then when then I die
I feel I shall say
I have not understood
I have not understood any of this
My eyes are still coaldark
I have not understood
Around and in my eyes the tiny flecks
Of swirling crippled confused lights
And to my heart I will whisper
Softly quietly
There is no death there is no death
(And goodbye to you all)
Under the gorgon grinned arches
Of London's great vaults
I have not understood
Under the sunpuckered roofs
Of Kathmandu
I have not understood
Along the soulstoned streets
Of Lower
And of Higher Germanie
I have not understood
Leipzig: blackeyed pain and loss: she
I have not understood
In Clare near I
the empty lakes are open in the distance
And too close is the famineretchingroad
All these are ghosts
There I have not understood
(In the Heart of the Wood
Oh there I have understood)
I rested at the temple of Great Black Time -- Her
And did not understand
Though animalbled fleshmarbled rivers ran in Her honour
His buckled body in blood
Returns to the prebirth poise
Spreadeagled like starfish --
There in His eyes:
Incomprehension mute pain disbelief what
Blood there meant sorrow trickles there
This I could not understand
I bend the pages of yet another book
And in its lines Great Black Lines
I have not understood
Please gramercy pray for me
And oh goodbye sweetestheart
The wind roars in the nearness
And there in my heart
And all the clouds are spiralling towards us
Descent indeed to the centre of it all
Skipping lightly and lying truly
This we shall understand
I hope...
We bent humped trees
The great ones -- there
On the lapped shore
Dai Ichi
There also I do not know
This is all unknowable
And as the dust covers
My empty eyes
You shall read in these foolish gapes
Oh that I have not understood
(But if you look for the stag and cross conjoined
there on my arm look there
There I have understood very well.)
Now you are all fading
All fading
As my age creeps on
As This Age stumbles on
Fires in the earth
Fires in the sky
Fires in our hearts
Fires everywhere
The black eyes
Already blacken
And this I have not understood
Not peace
But a sword
This and He
Unfortunately
I have understood
Under the bowered greenwood tree
When first I lay
Bright starre with Thee
Under the velvet branches dear
When sun and moon both came so near
Under the starlit open dome
Under the starsharp pointed lights
Under the starloved greeny earth
When first I wanted to hold You
And all the world halfdead and halflive
Spat into my mouth
Bluesea bitterwater
And I am almost dead
And I have not understood
Under the rain and teeth of gods
Under the pain and sleeping liddy eyes
Under the brokkèd wetful heaven
If you are there
If you are there
If you are there
Then I am singing with my eyes
If you are there


  Purchase "The Cloud Of Unknowing"   Purchase Entire Album   Email Video to Friends   Play Youtube "The Cloud Of Unknowing" Video   Play Spotify "The Cloud Of Unknowing" Song   View Wikipedia "The Cloud Of Unknowing" Entry   Receive Emails for Future Current 93 Lyrics

Email:

  Link to "The Cloud Of Unknowing"   Share on Facebook, Twitter, and more
  See Recommended Lyrics For You

Loading...

Lyrics by Current 93

  The Moons at Your Door   There Is a GraveYard That Dwells in Man   (Hey Ho) The Goddy (Oh)   (Hey Ho) The Noddy (Oh)   26 April 2007   A Beginning   A Gothic Love Song   A Gothic Lovesong (For N.)   A Sad Sadness Song   A Sadness Song   A Silence Song   A Song for Douglas (After He’s Dead)   A Song For Douglas After He's Dead   A Voice From Catland   Abba Amma (Babylon Destroyer)   Aleph Is The Butterfly Net   All The Pretty Little Horses   All The Stars Are Dead Now   All The World Makes Great Blood   Alone   Alone   And Onto PickNickMagick   Angel   Anti-Christ And Bar Codes   Antichrist and Barcodes   Anyway, people die   Anyway, people die   Anyway, People Die (Dictaphone Recording)   At The Blue Gates Of Death   Be   Beausoleil   Benediction   Bind Your Tortoise Mouth   Black Flowers Please   Black Ship Bloodbells (Live)   Black Ships in the Sky   Black Ships Seen Last Year South of Heaven   Black Sun Bloody Moon   Bloodstreamruns   Bonewhiteglory   Broken Birds Fly   Calling For Vanished Faces I   Calling For Vanished Faces II   Chicka Woo   Christ And The Pale Queen Mighty In Sorrow   Christ and the Pale Queens Mighty in Sorrow   Crowleymass Unveiled   Dögun   Death Of The Corn   Diana   Dormition And Dominion   Earth covers earth   Epilogue   Epilogue to "All the Pretty Little Horses"   Epilogue to "Imperium"   Falling   Falling Back in Fields of Rape   Fields Of Rape   Fields Of Rape   Fields Of Rape (Sightless Return)   Forever Changing   From Broken Cross, Locusts   God Gave Noah the Rainbow Sign   God Has Three Faces And Wood Has No Name   God Has Three Faces Wood Has No Name   Good Morning, Great Moloch   Happy Birthday Pigface Christus   Hitler As Kalki   Hooves   Hooves   Horsey   Horsey   Horsey (studio version)   Hourglass   Hourglass   Hypnagogue   I - A Voice From Catland   I Have a Special Plan for This World   I Looked To The Southside Of The Door   I Remember the Berlin Boys   Ii - Steven And I In The Field Of Stars   Iii - The Teeth Of The Winds Of The Sea   Immortal Bird   Imperium I   Imperium II   Imperium II   Imperium III   Imperium IV   Imperium V   Imperium V (live)   In The Heart Of The Wood   In The Heart Of The Wood And What I Found There   Into The Bloody Hole I Go   Into The Menstrual Night I Go   Invocation Of Almost   It Is Time, Only Time   Ix - All The World Makes Great Blood   Judas as Black Moth   Kings and Things   Lament For Her   Lament For My Suzanne   Larkspur And Lazarus   Let Us Go To The Rose   Locust   Lucifer Over London   Mary Waits In Silence   Misery Farm   Mockingbird   Moonbird for Jhonn (Feat. Ben Chasny)   Moonless (From O Po‡o)   Moonlight, Or Other Stars, Or Other Fields   Moonlight, you will say   Mourned Winter Then   Neimandswasser   Night! Death! Storm! Omega!   North   Not Because The Fox Barks   Not Because the Fox Barks (Live)   Oh Coal Black Smith   Oh Merry-Go-Round   On Docetic Mountain   Or   Panzer Rune   Passenger Aleph In Name   Passing Horses   Patripassian   Poppyskins   Quiero Hablarte   Raio No Terrasu (Jesus Wept)   Red Hawthorn Tree   Riverdeadbank   Rome For Duglas P   Rosy Star Tears From Heaven   Sad Go Round   She Is Dead And All Fall Down   She Took Us To The Places Where The Sun Sets   She Took Us to the Places Where the Sun Sets (Outt...   Silence as Christine (Dictaphone Recording)   Since Yesterday   Sleep Has His House   So This Empire Is Nothing   So: This Empire Is Nothing   Soft Black Stars   Spring Sand Dreamt Larks   St. Peters Keys All Bloody   Steven And I In The Field Of Stars   Suddenly The Living Are Dying   Sunset (The Death of Thumbelina)   Tamlin   Tanks Of Flies   Terra Tegit Terram   Terra Tegit Terram   The Ballad of the Pale Christ   The Bloodbells Chime   The Blue Gates Of Death (Before And Beyond Them)   The Carnival is Dead and Gone   The Darkly Splendid World   The Descent Of Long Satan And Babylon   The Dilly Song   The Dissolution of 'The Boat Millions of Years'   The Dream of A Shadow of Smoke   The Fall Of Christopher Robin   The Final Church   The Frolic   The God Of Sleep Has Made His House   The Great, Bloody And Bruised Veil Of The World   The Heart Full of Eyes   The Inmost Light   The Inmost Night   The Invisible Church   The Long Shadow Falls   The Magical Bird In The Magical Woods   The Nudes Lift Shields For War   The Nylon Lion Attacks As Kingdom   The Seahorse Rears to Oblivion   The Seahorse Rears to Oblivion (Instrumental)   The Signs And The Sighs Of Emptiness   The Signs In The Stars   The Stair Song   The Summer Of Love   The Tale of the Descent of Long Satan and Babylon   The Teeth Of The Winds Of The Sea   Then Kill Caesar   They returned to Their Earth (for my Christ Thorn)   They returned to Their Earth (for my Christ Thorn)   This Autistic Imperium is Nihil Reich   This Shining Shining World   Those Flowers Grew   Thunder Perfect Mind I   Time Stands Still   Time Tryeth Truth   To Blackened Earth   Twilight Twilight Nihil Nihil   Twilight, Twilight, Nihil, Nihil   Twilight, Twilight, Nihil, Nihil   UrShadow   V - Into The Bloody Hole I Go   Valediction   Vauvauvau (Black Ships in Their Harbour)   Vi - The Darkly Splendid World   Vii - The Cloud Of Unknowing   Viii - Let Us Go To The Rose   Walking Like Shadow   Walking like shadows   When The May Rain Comes   Where The Long Shadows Fall   Where The Long Shadows Fall   Where The Long Shadows Fall (beforetheinmostlight)   Whilst the Night Rejoices Profound and Still   Why Cæsar Is Burning, Part II   Why Did the Fox Bark?   With the Dromedaries   Xi - Into The Menstrual Night I Go   Xii - Dormition And Dominion   Xiii - So: This Empire Is Nothing   Xiv - This Shining Shining World

Related Songs

  Metanoia - King Missile  Cloud of Unknowing - Bobby Womack  Cloud Of Unknowing - Gorillaz  Cloud Of Unknowing - Rickie Lee Jones  Only the Future - Joe Jackson  Ye Cloude Of Unknowing - Crown Of Autumn  Always Unknowing [*] - Roxy Music  Always Unknowing - Roxy Music  The Unknowing - Omnium Gatherum  Unknowing - Altars  Unknowing - Busman's Holiday  Bye Bye Bayou - LCD Soundsystem  Velocity - Alarum  What If - Marit Larsen  Occupy Your Mind - Dusty Springfield  Occupy Your Mind - Pet Shop Boys  Simple Devotion - Misty Edwards  Until The Day Burns Down - Chamberlain  Vermintide - Black Tongue  Dead - Therapy?  Black Horses Stampede - Textures  Nefarious Conclusion - Question  Dark (Demo) - Luke Sital-Singh  Feast Of Burden - Dark Tranquility  Penetration Point - Nasty Savage  Crush Resistance - Haste The Day  One Gun [DVD] - Lamb of God  One Gun - Lamb Of God  A Song With No Words - Burning Airlines  Ungodly - Dawn Of Demise  Weakness in Me - Keisha White  The Weakness In Me - Keisha White  Listen To Me - King Missile  The voidist - 05 - "Our skulls" - Imaad Wasif  The Waiting Game - Todd Rundgren  Downfall - Attacker  Iran Scam - Infest  Ivory Tower - Matthew Sweet  A Quiet Place - We Lost the Sea  Whispers From Other Sky - Undercroft  Silent Nights - Envy Parade  Downbeat - The Warriors  A Flower In A Glove - Frog Eyes  The Weakness in Me - Melissa Etheridge  The Weakness In Me - Indigo Girls  The Weakness On Me - Joan Armatrading  Feast Of Burden - Dark Tranquillity  Love No Less Worthy - J. Tillman  The Suicide Pact - The Icarus Line  Waterfall - Light Skits  Summertime Is Easy - Marmoset  The Weakness In Me - 10 Things I Hate About You  Caesura - Faith And The Muse  The Eyes Of Tremendous Sorrow - Oathean  The Mortician Flame - Acid Bath  The Morticians Flame - Acid Bath  James Song - Anthony Green  James’ Song - Anthony Green  Ivory Tower - Meshuggah  Rip This - Evergreen Terrace  Trace - The Depreciation Guild  Venomous Habitations - Diabolic  Heaven Rise - Entwined  A Cry In Despair - When We Fall  Weird Beard - Fu ManChu  The Cloud - W.A.L.E.  The Cloud - Wale  Abomination Reborn - Suffocation  Cleanse The Soul - Slayer  Just Trying to Be [*] - Jethro Tull  Just Trying To Be - Jethro Tull  Ballad of the cloud - Cabaret Noir  Coral - Folk Implosion  Pump The Brakes - Refused  Your Life As a Sequel - Lambchop  Seeds Of Hate - Destruction  Straight to the Stars - ATB  The Pumpkinpatch Murders - Blitzkid  Two-Headed Monster - Showbread  Grey Victory - 10000 Maniacs  Dust to Dust - Monstrosity  Feed The Cold - Sacrilege  craft messenger - Welcome The Plague Year  Blood Of The Rose - The Dear Hunter  Take To The Sky - Jag Panzer  Slaughter at Beast House - Autopsy  On the Way - pastels  Anthem For American Teenagers - Jon Mclaughlin  Cloud Of Dust - Our Time Down Here  Cloud of Bees - Casper & The Cookies  Cloud Of Flies - The Ghost And The Grace  Cloud of Smoke - Fourth of July  Cloud of Evil - Blackout Beach  Cloud of Sound - Infantree  Cloud Of Dust - Brad Paisley  Cloud Of Black - The Fall  Cloud Of Dust - Paisley Brad  Cloud of Islam - Zain Bhikha  Cloud Of Dust - Tracy Lawrence  Cloud of Smoke - Agresiva  Cloud Of Black - Fall  Cloud Of Witnesses - Mark Schultz  Cloud Of Stink - Biffy Clyro  For A Thousand Mothers [Live] - Jethro Tull  Rite of Finality - Asunder  Fear (LunaSol Remix) - Sarah McLachlan  Fear - Sarah Mclachlan  Cloud - Sorrow  CLOUD - Vidoll  Cloud - Eyes of Oedipus  cloud - Fischerspooner  Cloud - Sia  Cloud - Elzhi  Cloud - Elias  Cloud - Hanhae  The Age of the Understatement...  An Infestation - And Hell Followed With  Overseers - Earth Crisis  Child - Peter Hammill  Child - Hammill Peter  Perfume And Promises - Idina Menzel  Open Your Heart - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy  Traffic In The Tropics - Baby Calendar  13 - Osker  When the World Was Woken - Barclay James Harvest  When The World Was Woken...  If You Can't Rock Me \/ Get Off My Cloud...  Maya - Motherjane  Blackcloud - Empire ISIS  End of the Night - The Inchtabokatables  Cloud City - Pond  Get Off Of My Cloud** - The Rolling Stones  Get Off Of My Cloud - Rick Springfield  Get Off Of My Cloud - The Rolling Stones  The Morticians' Flame - Acid Bath  Breathe Fire To The Sun - Brymir  Love Cloud - Benjamin Dunn  Wings Of A Cloud - Quiet Riot  Black Cloud - Acid  Get Off Of My Cloud - Rolling Stones  Get Off My Cloud - Rolling Stones  Cloud Nine - Marvin Gaye  Cloud Nine - Python Lee Jackson  Cloud Nine - Albino Gorilla  Cloud 9 - Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers  Cloud Nine [*] - Edwin Starr  Cloud Nine [*] - Marvin Gaye  Cloud Nine - The Mar-Keys  Cloud Nine [Take 3] - Carl Dawkins  Cloud Nine - bob marley  Cloud Nine - Dennis Edwards  Cloud Nine - Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers  Cloud Nine - The Wailers  Cloud Nine [Live] - The Funk Brothers  Cloud Nine [the Temptations] - Mongo Santamaría  Cloud Nine - Eddie Kendricks  Cloud Nine - Me'Shell Ndegéocello  Cloud Nine - Carl Dawkins  Cloud Nine [With Interview] - The Temptations  Cloud Nine - Gladys Knight & the Pips  Cloud Nine [Album Version [Stereo]]...  Cloud Nine - Edwin Starr  Cloud Nine - Peter Tosh  Smithsonian - The Avett Brothers  Dark City - Iced Earth  When The World Was Woken...  CLOUD NINE [Doin' Fine] - Rod Stewart  Ballad of a Cluster Bomb - David Rovics  Black Cloud - Eddy Arnold  Cloud Nine - The Temptations  Passenger - Lisa Hannigan  Traveling - Doe Paoro  God Put A Rainbow In The Clouds - Kitty Wells  Fear [Janes Mix] - Sarah McLachlan  The Black Cloud Of Islam - Roy Harper  Ghost Of The Red Cloud - The Flower Kings  The Black Cloud Of Islam - Harper Roy  God Put A Rainbow In The Cloud...  Cloud Nine (Stereo) - The Temptations  I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud - Julian Cope  Cloud Nine - Rod Stewart  God or a lie (people make such stupid decisions)...  Cloud 10 - Autograph  Only One Cloud - Beth Rowley  One Cloud - Beth Rowley  Black Cloud - The Choir  Cloud Nine (Doin' Fine) - Rod Stewart  The Shaft [Instrumental] - The Cloud  Ball of Seduction [Instrumental] - The Cloud  Head Underwater - Toby Lightman  God Put A Rainbow In The Cloud - Kitty Wells  Lair Of Nastrond - Goatwhore  Cloud 10 [Studio Demo] [Demo Version] - Autograph  Regret - Sufjan Stevens  Onset Of Tragedy - Chthonic  Cloud Nine - Me'Shell Ndeg\u00e9ocello  Cloud Nine - Temptations  Sleep walk capsules - At The Drive-In  Sleepwalk Capsules - At The Drive In  Regret - Suffocation