I heard that this song was written because of the death of her sister, or someone close to her. Cool song, though.

The song was written for Amy's sister, Catherine, who died of an unknown sickness when she was 3 (Amy was 6). The song's actual name is Catherine, which is why it's usually not titled. It also goes by Bleed.

It really sounded like you were getting confused with 'Hello' at first because amy wrote it for Bonnie when she died {bonnie was 3 years old}, but i heard something about Catherine from someone on evboard recently, so now im just confused. I know the thing about hello is true, amys dad verified that, but im not sure about this one.

shouldn't we just leave Amy Lee and her past alone? I think we should. Great song though.

This song is actually titled "Bleed".

To LaDiablo: Ben Moody has confirmed that this has nothing to do with "Catherine".

what the?? its about a friend who cuts herself and seems to not care who sees. re-read the lyrics. "how can i pretend that i dont see, what you hide so carelessly? i saw her bleed" and what their reaction to it is "help her know i've got to tell someone..tell them what i know you've done".

lyric corrections

How can I pretend that I don't see
What you hide so carelessly?
I saw her bleed
You heard me breathe
and I froze inside myself
And turned away
I must be dreaming

We all live
We all die
That does not begin to justify you

It's not what it seems
Not what you think
No I must be dreaming
It's only in my mind
Not real life
No I must be dreaming

Help you know I've got to tell someone
Tell them what I know you've done
I fear you but spoken fears can come true

We all live
We all die
That does not begin to justify you

It's not what it seems
Not what you think
No I must be dreaming
It's only in my mind
Not real life
No I must be dreaming

Not what it seems
Not what you think
I must be dreaming

Just in my mind
Not real life
I must be dreaming

ok, yea, this song goes by both bleed and i must be dreaming, and i do not think it is about her sister. there IS a song by them called cathering tho, but i have never heard it.

Everytime I hear this I think of witnessing a murder. It just fits it so well. It completely freaks me out, but I can't stop singing it.

i agree with britty chan.. it does sound like its about witnessing a murder...mostly be cause of these lines.:"How can I pretend that I don't see
What you hide so carelessly?
I saw her bleed
You heard me breathe
So I froze inside myself
And turned away
I must be dreaming

We all live
We all die
That does not begin to justify you "

Firstly, before I even begin my take on the song after listening to it repeatedly, I must admit I totally adore this song. I’ve heard quite a few of their songs not included in Fallen, and this is definitely one of the top five. Perhaps even number one or two, up there with Even In Death. I love those songs to death.

Anyway, onto the point… I obviously have listened to this quite a few times, and this is what I first believed the lyrics to mean and every time I listen to this song, this is what is conjured in my head:

“How can I pretend that I don't see
What you hide so carelessly?”

I think she (whom I will refer to as Amy seeing as she sings the song and basically wrote everything with Ben) has been pretending to not see someone (whom I’ll refer to as Michelle because, well, because it will be less confusing, haha) slitting their wrist for awhile, and is finally saying something to Michelle (who I’m guessing is a friend of Amy’s). The fact that Michelle was trying to hide it sort of pushed me to that idea, although the carelessly part sort of threw me off. I ended up going with Michelle is totally contradicting herself there; she wants to hide her habits, yet she’s screaming for help as well. Maybe Michelle wanted someone (who ended up being Amy) to see what she was doing to herself.

“I saw her bleed
You heard me breathe
So I froze inside myself
And turned away
I must be dreaming”

I think this might be Amy reflecting upon the first time she saw Michelle cut herself. Maybe Amy made some kind of noise and Michelle heard it, but didn’t necessarily see Amy? Or perhaps Michelle did catch Amy and convinced her not to say anything, although the second version makes sense with everything else I’m saying. Either way, I think Amy didn’t know what to do or say at first, and turned away, convincing herself that it was all a lie and when she woke up she would find it was nothing but a dream.

“We all live
We all die
That does not begin to justify you”

I think this is Amy truly coming out and saying what she thinks. We all live, yes, and you get to suffer along with us. You get to cry and feel hopeless, but you have tomorrow. You can still find the good and happiness. Amy then goes on to say we all die. I think that was just her saying eventually we all die. “That does not begin to justify you” ties those two together. We’re going to live, and we’re going to die, but you don’t get to decide when. You don’t get to play God. I think Amy is just saying that using some kind of excuse along the lines of “Life was too hard. We all die anyway, so what’s the point of sticking through the bad?” or the likes wasn’t going to cut it. It wasn’t going to justify what Michelle did.

“It's not what it seems
Not what you think
No I must be dreaming
It's only in my mind
Not in real life
No I must be dreaming”

I think this is Amy going back and remembering that first time again. She’s remembering Michelle telling her it isn’t what it seems; it’s not what she thinks. Amy is sort of repeating Michelle’s words and telling herself she must be dreaming again. Once again she’s telling herself it’s only in her head. The not in real life part makes me think Amy sort of went into denial. This couldn’t be happening in real life, not to her friend. Maybe Michelle came off as an upbeat, good friend so it seems impossible to Amy that Michelle would be doing that kind of stuff to herself, so Amy goes back to telling herself she’s dreaming.

“Help you know I've got to tell someone
Tell them what I know you've done
I fear you but spoken fears can come true”

I think this is where Amy is telling Michelle that she (Amy) has to go to someone and get help for Michelle. Amy is trying to convince Michelle that by letting people know what she knows, she will be helping Michelle in the end. Amy is afraid of Michelle in a way. She’s terrified that by going to someone, Michelle would hate her and with that, their friendship would be gone. The thing is, Amy is even more terrified of telling someone. She’s afraid that if she actually tells someone that she thinks Michelle is killing herself that will really happen. Michelle will kill herself, and Amy will lose her forever that way, and Michelle will hate her for saying anything to begin with as well. Either way, Amy feels like she’s going to lose her friend if she says anything.

“We all live
We all die
That does not begin to justify you

It's not what it seems
Not what you think
No I must be dreaming
It's only in my mind
Not in real life
No I must be dreaming”

I think this still means the same as the first time it was said.

“Not what it seems
Not what you think
I must be dreaming”

I think these parts being repeated is significant and not just another repetitive part. Michelle is again trying to convince Amy not to say anything. She’s pleading with her not to say anything, even though she sort of wants someone to help her through (which is explained in the first verse by her hiding it carefully).

“Just in my mind
Not in real life
I must be dreaming”

I think, in the end, Michelle wins out. With Michelle’s help, Amy convinces herself that it’s all in her head. This couldn’t be happening in her life. Michelle wouldn’t do such a thing to herself, so it has to be some kind of nightmare. Amy lets her fears about what could happen overtake her, and would rather live out her lie and pretend everything is okay even though she knows it is not.

Hahaha, I know that was extremely long, but like I said, I adore the song. Very beautiful song, and I personally think Amy Lee’s vocals are incredible.

*looks up* Wow.

*Apologizes*

Uninformed little me makes bad comments. *waits to be bludgeoned with toaster*

I still think it's about her sister (Bonnie, not Catherine; damn that person from falling-forever....). Catherine is a different song entirely, which hasn't been released. It probably wasn't officially titled because it wasn't officially released...

i just love how high amy can get in the chorus, i just love it. I can so not get that high!!!
She is so amazing.

I actually thing she is singing of witnessing someone being killed or hurt, hence "We all live, we all die, that does not begin to justify you"

Meh, i dont know, i just love the song!!!!!

Catherine is a song that hasn't been released, officially or unofficially...

this one is called Bleed, but is often mislabeled as "I Must Be Dreaming" and "Unknown"

I think it's about discovering that someone that you have loved and trusted for all your life (a father perhaps) is a whole another person than you think he is, for example if you'd walk in on your father hitting your mother...

I think it's about Amy or whoever seeing someone kill someone.

i agree totally with This Time Imperfect. she spoke for a lot of people!! i agree with her meaning and point of view on it.. :)

i think that it's about some girl who cuts herself and amy wants to tell someone, but she is too weak to say anything, becuz the person who is cutting is someone she loves. but who knows....

whomg
i hate you
and i hate the band you like

wtf? If you don't like the band then get the fuck away from here, mrcrow.

Binni, I finally got past my thick skull and apologized for that statement, I'm sorry =).

Hey,britty chan,where did you get this song to listen to it?I really really want to hear it...

You can find this one at mylastbreath.co.uk, a really good Evanescence site. There's a whole lot of other songs there, and all of good quality too. I highly recommend it.

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this song, so much, and I pretty much know it's about her sister Bonnie. Seems like she's talking to reality, or to God, that people that young shouldn't die so quickly.

gorgeous gorgeous song!! i just cant help singing it after i've listened to it. =D

I first thought that this song was about Amy witnessing sum1 cut themsaelves. Although after listenin 2 it more and talkin about it with my friend i think its about hewr witnessing a murder and she can't believe its true and she's goyt 2 tell sum1. She's sayin we all live we all die, but at the same time she means. Yea we live, we die. But that's no excuse for murder. Mayb I ythought it was about sum1 cuttin themselves at first coz I'm slightly paranoid about that..........ummm yeah..