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Dream Theater - Repentance Lyrics

VIII: Regret
[Instrumental Intro]

[Intro]
Hello Mirror!
So glad to see you, my friend
It's been a while

[Verse 1]
Staring at the empty page before me
All the years of wreckage running through my head
Patterns of my life I thought adorned me
Revealing hurtful shame and deep lament

Overwhelming sorrow now absorbs me
As the pen begins to trace my darkest past
Signs throughout my life that should have warned me
Of all the wrongs I've done for which I must repent

[Pre-Chorus]
I once thought it better to regret
Things that I have done than haven't

[Chorus]
Sometimes you've got to be wrong
And learn the hard way
And sometimes you've got to be strong
When you think it's too late

[Verse 2]
Staring at the finished page before me
All the damage now so clear and evident
Thinking 'bout the dreaded task in store for me
A bitter fear at the thought of my amends

Hoping that the step will help restore me
To face my past and ask for forgiveness
Cleaning up my dirty side of this unswept street
Could this be the beginning of the end?

[Pre-Chorus]
I once thought it better to regret
Things that I have done than haven't

[Chorus]
Sometimes you've got to be wrong
And learn the hard way
And just when you're through hanging on
You're saved

IX: Restitution

[Excerpts of fellow musicians' apologies]
"Until that moment
I'd never felt like I'd failed at anything
I felt like I failed her
And I failed myself, and I failed my children
It's still really hard to deal with."

"I want to thank you for helping me
To see my own selfishness
And to tell you how regretful I am it has hurt you."

"I'm sorry I didn't visit you in the hospital, Grandpa
When you were on your deathbed
I'm sorry I didn't come to your funeral...
I don't know if I was selfish or I just was too scared to face it
It's one of the biggest regrets of my life."

"I'm here to confess with you that what I did was wrong
And I'm asking for your forgiveness..."

"The only unforgivable thing hauls itself out of bed
Looks over my shoulder at the bloody English weather."

"I really regret not being able to see my friend Andy."

"One of my best friends, who's the godfather of my daughter
He asked me to sing or play something at his wedding
And I turned it down because I was busy and
I guess, too much of a chickenshit to do it
And I feel sorry for that, because it was a very, very close friend of mine."

"So, I wanted to apologize to anyone
That I've upset or offended by my words
It's just an opinion, but unfortunately
I tend to express it as a fact
And that's kind of arrogant. Isn't it?"

"I think it's the betrayal
It still haunts me."

"I'm sorry for what I did back then
I was a different person
I really was and I'm so sorry
I wish it wouldn't have happened, but it did
And I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?"

"I guess I'm simply sorry for being me and not you
I so often wish you could be here with me to show me the way."

[Spoken Outro: Mike Portnoy]
“If we are painstaking about this phase of our development
We will be amazed before we are halfway through
We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness
We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it

We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace
No matter how far down the scale we have gone
We will see how our experience can benefit others
That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear

We will lose interest in selfish things
And gain interest in our fellows
Self-seeking will slip away
Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change

Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us
We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us
We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us
What we could not do for ourselves

Are these extravagant promises? We think not
They have been fulfilled amongst others:
Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly
We will always be true to our principles.”

"You're only as sick as your secrets
But the truth shall set you free."

"The truth is the truth
And so all you can do is live with it."