Hello darkness, my old friend,

 I've come to talk with you again,

 Because a vision softly creeping,

 Left its seeds while I was sleeping,

 And the vision that was planted in my brain

 Still remains

 Within the sound of silence.

 

In restless dreams I walk alone

 Narrow streets of cobblestone,

 'Neath the halo of a street lamp,

 I turned my collar to the cold and damp

 When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light

 That split the night

 And touched the sound of silence.

 

And in the naked light I saw

 Ten thousand people, maybe more.

 People talking without speaking,

 People hearing without listening,

 People writing songs that voices never share

 And no one dared

 Disturb the sound of silence.

 

"Fools" said I,"You do not know

 Silence like a cancer grows.

 Hear my words that I might teach you,

 Take my arms that I might reach you."

 But my words like silent raindrops fell,

 And echoed

 In the wells of silence

 

And the people bowed and prayed

 To the neon god they made.

 And the sign flashed out its warning,

 In the words that it was forming.

 And the signs said, 'The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls

 And tenement halls.

 And whisper'd in the sounds of silence.