THE SLOW WAY

(Tune: "The Slow Train", Flanders and Swann)

(Spoken) First harvest on Lianou...Carnival on Delgerg's World...Moonrise on Remison...

	We've said our farewells on Siska-Magis and Tarziel,
	Gone the slow way from lost Diaspar to High Rondel,
	No seas, no forests, no sheltering hills,
	No pastoral hamlets, no satanic mills,
	The memories draining away
	As we go the slow way.

	We've seen the last dawn on Cauremanos and Feldresorn,
	On Lomas Minor the last of the flowers have died still-born,
	No teeming cities, no peace and no war,
	On Lesser Goronwy there's famine no more,
	There's nothing more we can say,
	We took the slow way.

	As the homeship travels star-guided
	We watch them go,
	And of their lives and their final passing alone we know.
	Alone we care
	For Arkon or Andelsain...

	No poets remain on Ourenaris or Zanthar‚,
	No-one to sell, no-one to buy,
	From Nduma to Charn, from Old Earth to New Sky...
	And no-one ever asks why
	As we go the slow way,
	We go the slow way.

(Spoken) Bursting buds on New Primavera...the towers of Kurkaan-Zesh...
	We go the slow way.
(Spoken) The Starwheel of Malison...Escalus' Canyon on Tumroon...
	We go the slow way.
(Spoken) The burning of the library at Terminus.....