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The flowers you gave me are rotting
And still I refuse to throw them away
Some of the bulbs never opened quite fully
They might so I'm waiting and staying awake
Things I have loved I'm allowed to keep
I'll never know if I go to sleep
The papers around me are piling and twisting
Regina the paperback mummy
What then?
I'm taking the knife to the books that I own
And I'm chopping and chopping and boiling soup from stone
Things I have loved I'm allowed to keep
I'll never know if I go to sleep
Things I have loved I'm allowed to keep
I'll never know if I go to sleep
And still I refuse to throw them away
Some of the bulbs never opened quite fully
They might so I'm waiting and staying awake
Things I have loved I'm allowed to keep
I'll never know if I go to sleep
The papers around me are piling and twisting
Regina the paperback mummy
What then?
I'm taking the knife to the books that I own
And I'm chopping and chopping and boiling soup from stone
Things I have loved I'm allowed to keep
I'll never know if I go to sleep
Things I have loved I'm allowed to keep
I'll never know if I go to sleep
Lyrics submitted by thepokeypuppy
Track duration: 03:55
"The Flowers" as written by Regina Spektor
Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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(The flowers you gave me are rotting
And still I refuse to throw them away)
This is about a reluctance to accept the reality of the situation, the flowers a metaphor for the shared emotional experience of her and her partner)
(Some of the bulbs never opened quite fully
They might so I'm waiting and staying awake)
Here Regina states that she feels that the relationship never reached its full potential. The possibility of the bulbs (a metaphor for their emotional connection) to open up again is leaving her reluctant to move on and instead waiting and staying awake for the possibility.
(Things I have loved I'm allowed to keep
I'll never know if I go to sleep)
This line is referring to her emotional attachment to the relationship that while she no longer loves it feels that she is allowed to keep it. By stating that she will never go to sleep, she is acknowledging that the relationship is doomed and she is grasping at a non-existent possibility.
(The papers around me are piling and twisting
Regina the paperback mummy
What then?)
This is referring to her attempts to understand her predicament through literature and through various texts. She feels that she has been encompassed by this leaving her a paperback mummy. But she knows that this will not be what will allow her to overcome her feelings evident in the pessimistic rhetorical question "what then?"
(I'm taking the knife to the books that I own
And I'm chopping and chopping and boiling soup from stone)
I find this the most beautiful lyric. By taking a knife to the books she owns she is making reference to her attempt to understand her predicament by searching through and cutting out relevant passages that may help her understand. However the second line referring to boiling soup from stone is a reference to an old fable; here using it to once again to embody her pessimism of finding a conclusion, as adding more and more passages still will not change the reality nor help her understand why.
"By stating that she will never go to sleep, she is acknowledging that the relationship is doomed and she is grasping at a non-existent possibility."
I read the line "I'll never know if I go to sleep" as a continuation of "They might [open] so I'm waiting and staying awake." So actually it is not an acknowledgment of defeat, but a grasping at straws.
"...the second line referring to boiling soup from stone is a reference to an old fable; here using it to once again to embody her pessimism of finding a conclusion..."
The fable that the lyric "I'm boiling soup from stone" is alluding to is not pessimistic at all -- it's a tale wherein a character, like the poet in this song, starts boiling a stone. People come by and charitably sprinkle ingredients into it until the soup becomes edible. I think of this line as a continuation of her chopping up books and trying to piece together an understanding from a community of thinkers.
I think what you are reading as the pessimism of the song is contained in Regina's cadence and the sadness of the piano accompaniment. This interpolates onto us a suspicious reading of the lyrics, and so we feel like the poetess in this situation is in a doomed relationship.
But despite all that stuff, I really like this analysis and I feel everything else you said is totally spot on.
(The flowers you gave me are rotting
And still I refuse to throw them away)
This is about a reluctance to accept the reality of the situation, the flowers a metaphor for the shared emotional experience of her and her partner)
(Some of the bulbs never opened quite fully
They might so I'm waiting and staying awake)
Here Regina states that she feels that the relationship never reached its full potential. The possibility of the bulbs (a metaphor for their emotional connection) to open up again is leaving her reluctant to move on and instead waiting and staying awake for the possibility.
(Things I have loved I'm allowed to keep
I'll never know if I go to sleep)
This line is referring to her emotional attachment to the relationship that while she no longer loves it feels that she is allowed to keep it. By stating that she will never go to sleep, she is acknowledging that the relationship is doomed and she is grasping at a non-existent possibility.
(The papers around me are piling and twisting
Regina the paperback mummy
What then?)
This is referring to her attempts to understand her predicament through literature and through various texts. She feels that she has been encompassed by this leaving her a paperback mummy. But she knows that this will not be what will allow her to overcome her feelings evident in the pessimistic rhetorical question "what then?"
(I'm taking the knife to the books that I own
And I'm chopping and chopping and boiling soup from stone)
I find this the most beautiful lyric. By taking a knife to the books she owns she is making reference to her attempt to understand her predicament by searching through and cutting out relevant passages that may help her understand. However the second line referring to boiling soup from stone is a reference to an old fable; here using it to once again to embody her pessimism of finding a conclusion, as adding more and more passages still will not change the reality nor help her understand why.
"The things I have loved I'm allowed to keep?
I'll never know if I go to sleep."
That has a whole different meaning than with a period to me.
The Jewish (to me) sounding melody in the end made me think this could be the meaning to this song, and wasn't there book burning during the Holocaust (taking the knife to the books)? maybe it's a dream of hers, that verse about possibly ruining books - the way she described it makes it sound like the description of a dream. I mean she does talk about sleep, and maybe -- oh! If she goes to sleep, she will forget that she can now keep things that she loved because she has nightmares about something bad... a giant paper-back mummy, making soup out of stone, ruining her books.
I don't really know if this song could be about more than that, since she talks about holding on to something good, like something she has loved or flower bulbs that have not opened, so maybe there is something good she is remembering.
Also, the melody in the end is kind of uplifting. If the melody IS actually Jewish like it seems to me, it can represent the resiliency of the Jewish culture. (I was in Fiddler on the Roof in high school, and it made me think of this idea ><.) How, bad things ended up happenning to Jewish people in history, but they always bring themselves back out of it.
Overall, it's not a song about the Holocaust itself obviously, but living after something horrible, and being shaken up by it, a post-Holocaust Jewish mentality, even if a generation later. Regina herself said in an interview that she has inherited a jewish mentality from her grandparents.
I might be wrong though, there's probably not that much Jewish-ness in this song...
She is able to insert her name into this song without sounding pretentious, only beautifully desperate. All of these rappers and Lady goddamn Gaga throw their names into songs without really thinking about it (mostly because they are lacking in creativity with lyrics), but with Regina it has value.
It's a strange thing to note, but kudos to her. Anyway, the entire song is beautiful, filled with yearning, and the piano is so fitting.
Another hauntingly beautiful song by Regina.
The song depicts fear. The fear of losing childhood as an adult, as you grow- or rather rot, like the flowers. There's still hope though, in the bulbs which have not opened. And to fall asleep would be to forget or to lose in the blackness of closed eyes. The piano is the line between awake and asleep, teetering and tottering.
As for the second verse, you feel overwhelmed by 'the papers', to the point where they will wrap around you, consume you for death, like a mummy.
and then in the survival guide to the soviet kitsch, this song plays while a little russian nesting doll spins in a field of black...I think, to Regina, the doll is something she 'is allowed to keep', a piece of her childhood. To regina, I think this song is a tribute to her childhood, and so has become to mine, too.
AND LASTLY, what is exactly the 'style' of the ending? I LOVE it, for example Mirah's 'Light the Match' is similar musically in a way...I have no idea what it's called, but it just "fits" my personality. It's fun to play and listen to....and I'm wondering if anyone knows the correct term for the style.
Apparently it's border of russianesque and jewish melody; I know where you all are coming from in saying that, but a formal name?
ciaoxo