Babylon Variations
How many miles to Babylon? It’s three-score miles and ten. Can I get there by a candle’s light? Aye, and back again. If you travel fast and you travel light You can get there and back by the candle’s pale light. How many miles to Babylon? It’s three-score miles and ten. Run as though all of hell’s hounds were behind you, follow the candle and don’t turn around. I was older, not wiser, when I came to find you; follow me fast, or they’ll run us to ground. They called for a hero, and maybe that’s me: it seems that there’s nobody else. But the candle is fading, and I can’t quite see how I’m going to save you -- I can’t save myself. How many miles to Babylon? It’s five-score miles and ten. Can I get there by a candle’s light? Aye, and back again. If you run through the woods like a deer in flight You can get there and back by the candle’s pale light. How many miles to Babylon? It’s five-score miles and ten. This is the riddle that I can’t quite answer -- how will the candle lead us to the door? Hope’s just a luxury, fear’s an addiction -- run ‘til it seems you can’t run anymore. Is anything what it’s pretending to be, lost here where the land turns to gray? For the candle is fading -- the fire can’t last. If we tarry too long, we may not find the way. How many miles to Babylon? It’s nine-score miles and ten. If you get there by a candle’s light you won’t come back again. If you choose your path and you choose it right You might get there and back by the candle’s pale light. How many miles to Babylon? It’s nine-score miles and ten. This is the bargain that I can’t escape from; this is the game that I shouldn’t have played. Candlelight’s strong but betrayal is stronger, and in the end it’s myself I’ve betrayed. They called for a hero -- I thought it was me, and still, there’s just nobody else. Run while you can, for the darkness is closing and I couldn’t save you -- I can’t save myself. How many miles to Babylon? It’s further than you know. Can I get there by a candle’s light? It’s better if you don’t go. If you travel fast and you travel light If you run through the woods like a deer in flight If you choose your path and you choose it right You can get there and back by the candle’s light. How many miles to Babylon? It’s three-score miles...and ten.
Written on: 2002-01-03. Seanan McGuire