F            Eb      Gm
Time passed hard
             F               Eb          
And the task was the hardest thing she'd ever do
F          Eb   
But she forgot
    Gm         F   Eb  
The moment she saw you

Gm               F         Eb     
So it would seem to be true:
       Gm            F         Eb
When cruel birth debases, we forget
       Gm            F      
When cruel death debases
   Eb                Gm      F
We believe it erases all the rest
        Eb
That precedes

[Verse 2]

Gm          F           Eb
But stand brave, life-liver
 Gm            F
Bleeding out your days
        Eb       Gm  F
In the river of time
        Eb
Stand brave:
Gm   F          Eb
Time moves both ways

[Chorus]

       Gm          F          Eb
In the nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Gm F   Eb
Joy of life;
    Gm          F          Eb
The nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Gm F   Eb
Joy of life

[Bridge]

      F                            Eb       
The moment of your greatest joy sustains:
    Gm
Not axe nor hammer
F
Tumor, tremor
     Eb                   Gm F Eb
Can take it away, and it remains
   Gm F Eb
It remains

       Gm    F     Eb         Gm F Eb
And it pains me to say, I was wrong
Gm           F       Eb
Love is not a symptom of time
Gm           F            Eb
Time is just a symptom of love

[Chorus]

         Gm          F          Eb        
(and the nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Gm F   Eb
Joy of life;
    Gm          F          Eb         
The nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Gm F   Eb
Joy of life)

[Coda]

        Eb          Gm
Hardly seen, hardly felt
                     F 
Deep down where your fight is waiting
Eb
Down 'till the light in your eyes is fading:
Gm F   Eb
Joy of life
        Gm                               F
Where I know that you can yield, when it comes down to it;
Eb                                       
Bow like the field when the wind combs through it:
Gm F   Eb
Joy of life
     Gm                      F
And every little gust that chances through
       Eb
Will dance in the dust of me and you
     Gm F     Eb
With joy-of-life
    Gm             F
And in our perfect secret-keeping:
 Eb
One ear of corn
      
In silent, reaping
Gm F     Eb
Joy of life

      Gm     F       Eb
Joy! Again, around a pause, a sound, a song:
   Gm    F      Eb            
A way a lone a last a loved a long
   Gm       F          Eb            
A cave, a grave, a day: arise, ascend
  Gm        F        Eb
(Areion, Rharian, go free and graze. Amen.)

Gm         F        Eb         
A shore, a tide, unmoored a sight, abroad:
   Gm     F          Eb          
A dawn, unmarked, undone, undarked (a god)
       Gm          F            Eb
No time. No flock. No chime, no clock. No end
      Gm              F         Eb      
White star, white ship, Nightjar, transmit: transcend!

       Gm           F         Eb       
White star, white ship, Nightjar, transmit: transcend!
       Gm           F         Eb       
White star, white ship, Nightjar, transmit: transcend!
       Gm           F         Eb          
White star, white ship, Nightjar, transmit: trans-