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Oh I wish I was the sparrow in your kid's eye
Like a fly above is summer all day long
On an island in the heart he has to carry
Past the many you have let into your song
And I said oh my lord why am i not strong
Like the wheel that keeps travelers traveling on
Like the wheel that will take you home
And in the forest someone is whispering to a tree now
This is all I am so please don't follow me
And it's your brother in the shaft that I'm swinging
Please let the kindness of forgetting set me free
And he said oh my lord why am I not strong
Like the wheel that keeps travelers traveling on
Like the wheel that will take you home
And on this Sunday someone's sititng down to wonder
Where the hell among these mountains will I be?
There's a cloud behind the cloud to which I'm yelling
I could hear you sneak around so easily
And I said oh my lord why am I not strong
Like the branch that keeps hangman hanging on
Like the branch that will take me home
Like a fly above is summer all day long
On an island in the heart he has to carry
Past the many you have let into your song
And I said oh my lord why am i not strong
Like the wheel that keeps travelers traveling on
Like the wheel that will take you home
And in the forest someone is whispering to a tree now
This is all I am so please don't follow me
And it's your brother in the shaft that I'm swinging
Please let the kindness of forgetting set me free
And he said oh my lord why am I not strong
Like the wheel that keeps travelers traveling on
Like the wheel that will take you home
And on this Sunday someone's sititng down to wonder
Where the hell among these mountains will I be?
There's a cloud behind the cloud to which I'm yelling
I could hear you sneak around so easily
And I said oh my lord why am I not strong
Like the branch that keeps hangman hanging on
Like the branch that will take me home
Lyrics submitted by ACaricatureOf
Track duration: 03:28
"Like the Wheel" as written by Kristian Matsson
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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He's talking to the tree. The shaft of the axe is made of wood.
The way I see it the narrator wishes to be rid of expectations and responsibility and imagines it would be a kindness to forget/escape what has happened. He wishes he was strong enough to move on, one way or the other (in a normal healthy way or by suicide).
What has happened has also made the narrator questions his existence/faith/spirituality. To me the cloud behind the cloud is a way of saying there's no heaven, no God, just clouds. And I could hear you sneak around so easily is a way of describing how the narrator finds it easy to imagine that the person who has passed is still around.
>Oh I wish I was the sparrow in your kid's eye
This whole verse sounds loving, but notice the 'your kid'. It could mean a few things, but I imagine a lover from the narrator's long-past youth, who has moved on and had children.
>I could fly above his summer all day long
>On an island in the heart he has to carry
He wishes he could be part of that family, but is drawn most of all to the child's innocent wonder. He's been hurt, and perhaps isn't sure that he'd want to come back in the role of the lover. "Heart he has to carry" also suggests a somewhat jaded view of love.
>Past the many you have let into your song
This jealousy or this regret is tied to some other lover that this woman has known.
>And I said oh my lord why am i not strong
He wants to be the adult, and to try to take her back, or even move on.
>Like the wheel that keeps travelers traveling on
>Like the wheel that will take you home
But even in saying that, he comes back to her. He is not strong, and he longs for her to come back to him, picturing her traveling far away.
>And in the forest someone is whispering to a tree now
>"This is all I am so please don't follow me"
This isn't delusion, it's despair. This second person is alone in the woods, and trying to console himself, but he can find nothing to pull him out. He (this person) doesn't want the narrator to pay him any mind. This, and the ambiguous change of pronoun in the next line, make me think that the "someone" here is still the narrator, talking to and about himself, but I'd be curious to hear if anything made more sense.
>And it's your brother in the shaft that I'm swinging
I'm lost on this. If this is the narrator talking to his love, it's not clear where in the story the brother belongs. This might make more sense in light of a better interpretation of who this "someone" is.
>Please let the kindness of forgetting set me free
He is giving up. He sees no way forward, and is bound to this memory that is consuming him.
>And he said oh my lord why am I not strong
>Like the wheel that keeps travelers traveling on
>Like the wheel that will take you home
"He" again, here. Curious.
In any case, he still imagines her coming "home."
>And on this Sunday someone's sititng down to wonder
>Where the hell among these mountains will I be?
Again, "someone" in the first two lines (interpreting the second line as a quote), and "I" in the next two. Hrm.
This person is lost, but this is ambiguous. Either he's trying to find a way out, and struggling to imagine a place that he could live, or escape, or else he's resigning himself to nature.
>There's a cloud behind the cloud to which I'm yelling.
Again, he's crying out to the woods. The cloud doesn't hear him, and the day is only growing darker with the growing clouds.
>I could hear you sneak around so easily
We come back around. He's sure she cheated, which is why he feels he can't come back to her, he no longer trusts her, and isn't sure what she feels.
>And I said oh my lord why am I not strong
>Like the branch that keeps hangman hanging on
>Like the branch that will take me home
This sounds a lot like suicide. She has her own life, and can come home from her travels, but that home cannot be with him. The narrator now sees his home in resigning himself to the mountains as a body.
I don't think I have a great sense of how the wheel fits in to this story. I don't really see the mythological connection going any farther than the wheel evoking pain. Besides that, it's elemental, it's strong, and it can take one home, either in the disillusioned routine of the narrator's life or in the lost dream where she comes back to him.
There are certain things that make it hard for this to be what he meant, like " On this sunday...will i be" After this phrasing it goes back to the suggestion of a relationship, possibly cheating.
The end is my favorite because it is such a creative way to imply suicide.
I would love some one to decipher the "cloud behind the cloud to which i'm yellin"
The wheel is representative of the terror and the joy of life, and the burden of recurring punishment
mythologically this is like- Ixion strapped to a wheel by Zeus and hurled across the sky forever
Prometheus tied to a rock to have his liver eaten by a vulture every day
Atlas carrying the world on his shoulders
so with this pain-bearing symbolism of 'the wheel' in mind
let's get to work interpreting this song
Oh I wish I was the sparrow in your kid's eyes
That could fly above this summer all day long
On an island in the heart he has to carry
Past the many you have let into your song
first thing's first mattson is an improvisational lyricist, so in any case, it takes two to make meanings out of his work.
Here the narrator is wishing, 'I wish I could fly above this summer all day long on an Island in the heart he has to carry' he wishes he could be free inside the world, but can't fly while he's bearing the whole weight of the wheel of his heart, or the wheel of the heart of this mysterious 'he'
past the many you have let into your song- implies he wants to fly free past the past of what is likely a lover, far away from all the other men she's let into her heart at one time or another. - Another weight added to this wheel of life's burden
-And I said oh my lord why am i not strong
Like the wheel that keeps travelers traveling on
Like the wheel that will take you home-
Now this is the heart of this song, this chorus
Here he's wishing he was as strong as the wheel he has to carry
the same wheel that keeps traveler's travellin' on, he wishes
he was strong as punishment, as great as life itself, but
he is humbled by his predicament no less,
and doomed to find the joy in his pain
Like the wheel that will take you home- the wheel that changes us, that makes us new, that kills us to give us new life, after the trials are over, we find our home inside ourselves.
1.And in the forest someone is whispering to a tree now
2.This is all I am so please don't follow me
3.And it's your brother in the shaft that I'm swinging
4.Please let the kindness of forgetting set me free
1. The tree represents the wheel, (still point of the wheel)
The narrator is declaring he's nothing, to worthless to wear the world's weight
2. So he tells the wheel not to follow him, he's telling the world off, and even more deeply, he's telling god off, tree- think buddha, - think christ, both who were crucified at the wheel's still point, the tree, the world axis.
3. just some meaningful nonsense, not to clear on this one
4. He's obviously committed a crime for being sentenced to bear the wheel, he wishes someone could forget so he could be set free from his pain.
1.And on this Sunday someone's sititng down to wonder
2.Where the hell among these mountains will I be?
3.There's a cloud behind the cloud to which I'm yelling
4.I could hear you sneak around so easily
this is my favourite verse, now we know he's not bieng sentenced for any crime like 'stealing' he's sentenced to bear the weight because he's human
1. Sunday (religious) someone's sitting down to think ( all these somebody's are the narrator, don't be fooled!)
2 Where the hell he's going to be located in the world, who he is essentially
3. He's yelling at god here, the cloud behind the cloud, the ultimate mystery, the one who made him bear the wheel for his metaphysical crimes
4. he can hear the mystery all around him
-And I said oh my lord why am I not strong
Like the branch that keeps the hangman hanging on
Like the branch that will take me home-
Here he's wishing once more for the strength he doesn't believe he has
except the branch symbolism is referring to the world axis now, hangman= christ
buddha, all of humanity- etc
And since this weight will transform him, kill him, and ressurect him, it will take him home= heaven, (something like that)
it's a very spiritual song in my opinion
of coarse it could also be about his girlfriend's car, who knows!
But even that, at which he thinks he's yelling, is a cloud, a misty object, behind which anything or nothing could be.
and that's my opnion :)
This guy is a lyrical master. His songs can be tough to decipher!