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Seems like only yesterday
I left my mind behind
Down in the Gypsy Cafe
With a friend of a friend of mine
Who sat with a baby heavy on her knee
Yet spoke of life most free from slavery
With eyes that showed no trace of misery
A phrase in connection first with she I heard
That love is just a four-letter word
Outside a rambling store-front window
Cats meowed to the break of day
Me, I kept my mouth shut, too
To you I had no words to say
My experience was limited and underfed
You were talking while I hid
To the one who was the father of your kid
You probably didn't think I did, but I heard
You say that love is just a four-letter word
I said goodbye unnoticed
Pushed towards things in my own games
Drifting in and out of lifetimes
Unmentionable by name
Searching for my double, looking for
Complete evaporation to the core
Though I tried and failed at finding any door
I must have thought that there was nothing more
Absurd than that love is just a four-letter word
Though I never knew just what you meant
When you were speaking to your man
I can only think in terms of me
And now I understand
After waking enough times to think I see
The Holy Kiss that's supposed to last eternity
Blow up in smoke, its destiny
Falls on strangers, travels free
Yes, I know now, traps are only set by me
And I do not really need to be
Assured that love is just a four-letter word
I left my mind behind
Down in the Gypsy Cafe
With a friend of a friend of mine
Who sat with a baby heavy on her knee
Yet spoke of life most free from slavery
With eyes that showed no trace of misery
A phrase in connection first with she I heard
That love is just a four-letter word
Outside a rambling store-front window
Cats meowed to the break of day
Me, I kept my mouth shut, too
To you I had no words to say
My experience was limited and underfed
You were talking while I hid
To the one who was the father of your kid
You probably didn't think I did, but I heard
You say that love is just a four-letter word
I said goodbye unnoticed
Pushed towards things in my own games
Drifting in and out of lifetimes
Unmentionable by name
Searching for my double, looking for
Complete evaporation to the core
Though I tried and failed at finding any door
I must have thought that there was nothing more
Absurd than that love is just a four-letter word
Though I never knew just what you meant
When you were speaking to your man
I can only think in terms of me
And now I understand
After waking enough times to think I see
The Holy Kiss that's supposed to last eternity
Blow up in smoke, its destiny
Falls on strangers, travels free
Yes, I know now, traps are only set by me
And I do not really need to be
Assured that love is just a four-letter word
Lyrics submitted by theraininspain, edited by Mellow_Harsher
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to me the title/refrain plays with 3 meanings - on the one hand, it's just literally true. the word 'love' has four letters. which could also be interpreted to mean that the dream of romantic love is just an unrealistic ideal, that 'love' is no more than a mundane word we use to create the illusion of something that doesn't really exist. on the other hand, 'four-letter word' is a nice way of saying cussing. so maybe that shows that our idealized concept of love isn't only nonexistent, but might even be an abomination, a swear word, a curse - like hopeless seeking or disillusionment can always be.
so the first verse seems to be just him remembering the first time he heard the phrase from a friend who had a child and was perfectly content with her life. maybe the part about slavery could be a reference to how the traditional jobs of homemaker and mother were sometimes called 'slavery' in the women's movement, but that for some women they really aren't? or that even someone who doesn't believe in love can be happy, free from the 'slavery' of misplaced ideals... i have no idea; i can't think of anything more plausible.
in the next verse i ask myself whether he's talking about the same person as in the first. anyhow, i see an idealistic kid in 'love' with someone whom he overhears speaking to a former lover (a more important one, who holds a permanent place through a mutual child) about the fact that she doesn't believe in love. so kind of a sad, disillusioning thing.
saying goodbye unnoticed seems to refer to the person above - and it could just be saying goodbye to someone who doesn't care much about what you do, but i also thought of a kind of emotional goodbye, where you withdraw from a relationship mentally and the other person doesn't notice that everything's ended because you're both still going through the motions. and then he's just talking about carrying on his own 'games', unsuccessfully searching for this impossible ideal of a soul mate. then the last line (nothing more absurd) i'd see as him still not believing that this ideal can't be found, not believing the cynicism.
but then he reaches his own interpretation of the phrase, falls out of 'love' often enough to realize that it - at least in the form he's seeking it, the 'holy kiss' - isn't permanent, isn't real, is just an illusion that passes from couple to couple and never actually stays with anyone. - i'm not sure about the traps, maybe the idea that those kinds of expectations are traps only you can set yourself (or free yourself from). but finally, he believes the phrase.
and then at the end, maybe he's back beside the one who hurt him with that cynicism back when he was a romantic, or maybe he's just with some new idealist of his own and it seems weird to be in the opposite position - of having someone else believe in 'forever', love, etc (and maybe want that from him). i'm not sure about the cheating thing - maybe the thought of ships passing in the night and not being willing to engage in an affair, or maybe not being able to cheat and pretend to be more idealistic than he really is... and finally he can't think of anything to do but to fall back on what he's learned (maybe with a touch of spite, if he's really talking to the person mentioned in the beginning of the song) and say that idealized love is impossible or that seeking it is profanity.
Brilliant song and a sublime version by Baez.
And the meaning is kind of profound.
It's about someone who is searching for and believes in love or a soul mate. But comes to realize, through the events of the song, that perhaps love is nothing more than a word. People set up their own heartbreaks and maybe there is no one person who we were "meant" to be with. Or perhaps that is just the view of a pessimist. It seems to be what the song is commenting on though.