| Nightwish – Amaranth Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Should have also said - the video really does have as it's visual inspiration 'The Wounded Angel' - you only have to look at the painting to immediately see it. Which are the the two characters Simberg used most in his art? They are the "Poor Devil" and Death. The 'Poor Devil'? Hmm - wonder how THAT fits in with what I have suggested as the lyrical meaning of this song? I think it ought to be self-explanatory. |
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| Nightwish – Amaranth Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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OK. Let me be the one to put a different spin on things. I am sure that the video and the lyrics are closely linked in that what we see there is a fallen angel. 'Baptized with a perfect name The doubting one by heart Alone without himself' Which fallen angel was a doubting one by heart? Only one - Lucifer. Despite his perfect name, he was 'alone without himself' - alone from God and without himself in the sense that his fall was against what he ought to have been by nature - so he is against himself. 'War between him and the day Need someone to blame In the end, little he can do alone' The rebellion of Lucifer was a 'war between him and the day'. God needed someone to blame for this rebellion, so cast him out - there was 'little he could do alone' to dethrone God. 'You believe but what you see You receive but what you give' Most people just accept the Christian view of things - Lucifer = bad, God = good. You only believe what you see presented as the facts. You only receive what you give - people live within the Christian worldview, and they only get back small returns. There is a play on the well-known biblical phrase about 'what you give is given to you in return'. 'Caress the one, the Never-Fading Rain in your heart - the tears of snow-white sorrow Caress the one, the hiding amaranth In a land of the daybreak' Hang on, says Tuomas. What you and I need to do is not reject the Fallen Angel, but caress him. The refrain is an appeal to those who can see beyond the Judeo-Christian way of things so that they will 'caress the never-fading hiding amaranth in the land of the daybreak'. Finland is one of the Scandinavian countries who are traditionally the land of the daybreak and who harbour the roots of paganism and the Old Religions. An amaranth is a flower seen in mythology as symbolising eternity. So, what you have is Lucifer, the never fading one who hides in the land of the daybreak despite the surrounding Christianity. What are we to do? Caress him not reject him. Ought we to hear 'Rain in your heart' or 'Reign in your heart'? I wonder whether the tears of snow-white sorrow refer to Lucifer who 'innocently' has been cast down for nothing more than exercising his free will, or whether this line is just padding to give credence to the double-entendre of reign/rain? Perhaps. 'Apart from the wandering pack In this brief flight of time we reach For the ones, who ever dare' Who are the wandering pack? Everyone who lives thoughtlessly in Christian ignorance. Who are the ones who ever dare? Those who follow an Older path and who in their brief flight of time dare to believe something different. 'Reaching, searching for something untouched Hearing voices of the Never-Fading calling' Untouched because so few dare to do so. Nevertheless, the Never Fading One calls to us if we will hear him. Not God, of course, but Lucifer. This song is veiled but decipherable. OK. 'Nuff said. |
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