Answer:
So cold, damp and dark this place. To stay you would refrain, yet those who occupy this place do never complain.
What can answer in any language? What can speak without a mouth? What can sing without an ear?
White bird, featherless, flying out of paradise. Flying over sea and land. Dying in my hand.
Used left or right, I get to travel over cobblestone or gravel. Used up, I vie for sweet success, used down, I cause men great duress.
My first is a creature whose breeding is unclear. My second, a price you must pay. My whole can be found in the river of Time and refers to events of today.
They are many and one, they wave and they drum, Used to cover a state, they go with you everywhere.