South Tower

North Tower

Sister, on the sea and all around
the day is resplendent...
but a lightning flash blinds me,
close by a rumbling resounds
and that din deafens me...
sister, I can see you hurt,
you have been hit...

Sister,
I feel confused
I feel torn asunder
I feel amputated...

Sister,
I see you lost in smoke
a black mantle weighs you down
tongues of fire surround you...

Sister, I feel I’m burning
I feel people running about me
I feel people shouting about me
I am full of terror,
my sister...

Be strong, sister, stand erect!
I already hear sirens drawing near
I can see firemen coming up
we are high and safe
they will soon help you sister...

I stand erect and maybe
I‘m beautiful still be sure I won’t waver, sister...
but now...
the terror comes back
I hear that noise again,
the rumble again
it sounds like a plane’s
it sounds like a bomb...
and it is on you
it crashes onto you
and sets you on fire, sister...

I feel I’m splitting up
people fly about me
like glass splinters, like paper
ideas and smiles escape from me
words and dreams fly away
with grief, with grief
and pieces of heart
sister dear,
I feel I’m dying...

No, sister, don’t collapse!
Let us keep together
let us resist together, for our sake
for the sake of the huge heart
of this city
for inside me the cries burn
for inside me the tears burn...

Sister, this useless hell
will have been a mistake
will have been madness...
for around me fly
scraps of life
while melts the steel
of good intentions...
I feel I’m fainting
I feel I’m falling
I feel like the Babel’s tower...

Sister,
we are not the tower of Babel
we are not a tomb
we are not the bomb;
feel, inside, what we are
we are the blood, the sweat
the labour of the world
we are...

My breath fails me
my strength fails me;
farewell, twin sister
I bear a load of tears
I bear a load of pride...

I am collapsing sister;
erect falls your twin
she bears a world of sighs
she bears a world of remembrances...

I shall see you again
beloved twin!
…we shall see you again
tower of hope!