Stena

[Intro - 8 bars, single clean electric guitar, slow and deliberate, distant low percussion entering near the end, female breath before the first line]

[Verse 1 - Pidgin, intimate]

Since I small, dem show me the road,

wear Sunday cloth, make I follow go.

Bow your head, close your eye,

if you call am well, answer go come.

I see old mama kneel for ground,

I hear holy words fill everywhere.

So I knock... I knock again.

Put my ear for the door,

wait make something call my name.

But na only my own heartbeat

I hear from the other side.

[Pre-Chorus - drums beginning underneath]

I wash my hand, I learn the words,

I face the place dem tell me face.

But for road one stranger greet me,

I pass am like I no see face.

Then something for inside whisper -

"You sure say na here you suppose dey wait?"

[Chorus - drums arrive, guitar opens up]

Knock, knock, I dey knock for the door.

Call, call, I dey call more and more.

I search up, I search far, I search everywhere.

But maybe heaven no get handle for the outside there.

All the doors wey I dey open,

I never open mine.

[Verse 2 - Russian, male, deep and weathered, drums pull back, guitar remains]

Я шёл по снегу к старой церкви,

свеча дрожала у меня в руке.

Я знал молитвы, знал все слова,

но не узнал тебя в чужом лице.

У двери нищий тихо мёрз,

я торопился - служба началась.

Я тоже стучал. Я тоже ждал.

А может, дверь была не там,

куда я столько лет смотрел?

[Pre-Chorus - Russian]

Я искал тебя над головой,

в золоте, в камне, среди свечей.

А ты стоял на том морозе

в глазах забытых мной людей.

[Build - African percussion enters under the Russian vocal, distorted guitar rising]

[Chorus - full explosion, distorted guitars, African percussion, bass]

Knock, knock, I dey knock for the door.

Call, call, I dey call more and more.

[Russian] Я стучал, я ждал, но дверь была во мне.

All the doors wey I dey open,

I never open mine.

[Instrumental Break - 16 bars, punk guitar and Nigerian percussion collide, balalaika cuts through once, jarring, unresolved]

[Verse 3 - Pidgin, groove remains, vocal stronger]

One man pray make blessing fall,

then cheat him brother before night.

We sabi scripture, we sabi song.

We sabi who belong, who no belong.

We build the walls, then paint dem holy,

kneel beside dem when things go wrong.

But one small boy share him bread,

still something holy happen there.

[Verse 3B - Russian, his own parallel, same groove]

Один целует икону в четверг,

а брата обманывает в четверг же.

Мы строим стены, зовём их святыми,

крестимся рядом, когда рушится дом.

Но нищий у двери делится хлебом

с тем, кто голоднее его самого.

Не звонит колокол. Не поёт хор.

Но что-то святое случается там.

[Pre-Chorus - trading]

Maybe na smile be one small key.

[Russian] Может, Бог приходит тихо,

когда мы видим друг друга.

Maybe I don stand outside too long

with the handle for inside.

[Chorus - bigger]

Knock, knock, I no dey knock anymore.

No be up, no be far, no be somewhere I must go.

Open am... when you forgive.

Open am... in the way you live.

Maybe heaven start with ordinary things.

[Bridge - instruments collapse, clean guitar and heartbeat drum, near-whisper trading]

[Russian] Всю жизнь я искал Твоё лицо -

в книге, в куполах, в свечах.

All this time I dey find Your face.

I ask You, "Why You hide from me?"

[Russian] А потом однажды я помог тому,

кто не мог мне отплатить.

Then one day I help somebody

wey no fit help me back.

[Silence - one beat]

And something open.

[Russian - softly] Я увидел тебя в человеке передо мной.

I drop old hate - something open.

I hold the person wey dem teach me to fear -

something open.

[Final Chorus - maximum energy, full drums, punk guitars, African percussion, Russian counter-vocal throughout]

No more knock, knock, I no dey wait by the door.

If I want enter tomorrow, make I leave yesterday here.

[Responses] Leave am there!

Old hate -

[Russian] Старую ненависть -

[Responses] Leave am there!

Who dem tell me I should fear -

[Responses] Leave am there!

[Russian] Оставь старую ненависть. Открой своё сердце.

[Together] Maybe the door been dey inside me.

[Final surge - 8 bars, wild punk guitar against African drums, balalaika answers once more]

[Outro - returns to opening guitar, everything fades except guitar]

Tomorrow morning, if stranger smile... I go smile too.

If somebody fall... I go stop.

[Russian - equally soft] Если завтра незнакомец улыбнётся... я тоже улыбнусь.

No thunder. No fire. No voice from the sky.

Just one door... opening quietly inside.

[Single guitar chord]