Year Of The Tiger Lyrics - Austra

Bristled by a peaceful air 

Wound up by the soft wind that berates his hair 

He'll sharpen his teeth on the sky 

A fire passes through a tiger's eye 

As long as his days are old 

As old as his tail is white 

As white as his stripes are black 

As black as the ghosts that sulk through the night 

He'll take you before you can see 

Him strike like thunder before lightning 

Goes the tiger burning through the night 

Tear into the empty world 

Howl back at the sound of the void 

As tame as the wildest dream 

As soft as the loudest scream 

Two eyes blink like stars in the dark 

A shudder of light that you drink and are marked 

The fear drips like blood from his teeth 

The fear drips like blood from his teeth 

Beneath him just violent thoughts 

Streaks of memories, prey he forgot 

His castle of gristle and bone 

The king sits on his throne afraid and alone 

Between the earth and the sky 

A struggle on both sides 

The tiger lives afraid as the tiger dies 

Chasing shadows across the sun 

Streaks of light he can't outrun 

Cut through the darkness like the shot from the hunter's gun 

Stalking a naked terrain 

At the top of his barren chain 

No one left to remember his name 

So he kills again 

Lash out at the unknown 

Rank that is grown on the bone 

A company of order and flesh 

His foul caress 

He rips the sun right out of the sky 

Clawing tears in the haze as the dark fills his eyes 

Blind to a merciless god 

Smothered by the facade 

He'll take you before you can see 

Him strike like thunder before lightning 

Goes the tiger burning through the night 

The king of the shortest stick 

The beast above with one last trick 

Sovereign of his defeat 

In the end it was bittersweet 

Prostrate in a royal cower 

The cat is a mouse to the eyes in the tower 

His blood falls from the highest plateau 

Above as it is below 

It takes him before he can see 

Pulls his shadow away right from under his feet 

Now the darkness is a part of the light 

As the tiger goes, burning in the night 

Between the earth and the sky 

A struggle on both sides 

The tiger lives afraid as the tiger dies 

Chasing shadows across the sun 

Streaks of light he can't outrun 

Cut through the darkness like the shot from a hunter's gun 

Who is the beast, 

And who are the spoils? 

Who makes the trees 

Grow up from the soil? 

And charges the sky 

With imperious fire 

Brutes in the dark 

Afraid of the sire... 

Who is this beautiful beast 

A tear of light on his teeth 

A fearful smile on his face 

Tokens of blood leave a trace 

Whimper and bowed to the ground 

A scornful sun bearing down 

Grimace and howl through the pain 

Get up, get shot down again 

Light drips like paint from heaven 

A shining pall on the horizon 

Life weeps away from his frame 

Stretched to the bone by the flame 

Corrupt the stripes on his back 

And burn the white into black 

Iron imprisons his rage 

Violent stains colour a cage 

So filled with sorrow 

So filled with hate 

Otherwise empty 

A relic of grace 

Shot like an arrow 

His fateful arc 

He'll charge until 

He's lost in the dark 

Bring down the father 

Who brought down the son 

A blinding madness 

He won't overcome 

Strike out in anger 

Eclipsed by fear 

His last breath wasted 

The end is near... 

Remember life as a king, 

The coil of life in the spring 

The silver stare of the stars 

Before the snare of the bars 

That deathly coddle of light 

Cut through the space of the night 

So say goodbye grandfather 

The body spent to confer 

As the flesh kisses the earth 

His stripes dissolve to give birth 

To the beasts in the sky 

That ride the tiger tonight... 

Between the earth and the sun 

A struggle on both sides 

The tiger lives afraid as the tiger dies 

Chasing shadows across the sky 

Streaks of light he can't outrun 

Cut through the darkness like the shot from a hunter's gun