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A soft breeze with the slippery concrete black and full of muddy slush, contrasting with the hoarfrost, clean and hung on a tunnel of silent shivering trees (the ones you said you'd like to be), and the birds that screamed at the sun now buried deep down below the ground, beneath the snow, I press my shoulder to this wall between us. I know you are behind me but I press my shoulder to this wall, determined not to turn around. I know I'll see you standing, still that statue that I molded in my mind to kiss, so beautiful you'll never move again. Someplace far away, at some sad table littered with bad light, with chipped plates, in 48 frames from a movie on the cutting room floor, you said "True meaning would be dying with you", and though I wanted to, I did not smile. But now I will give up on this wall that we have fought with, never uncover meaning behind our rich words. If I could I would make you a raging river, with angry rapids, supplied with rain, so you could always meander and forever be able to run away without contending with myths wrongly interpreted with pain. A harsh wind.
Lyrics submitted by sockmonkey
Track duration: 03:12
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at the beginning he is reminiscing, on the good old days of seeing her how he wanted to see her, the free spirit, the girl who wants to be with the trees, the girl we all know of in theory but never actually meet. the idol to him.
the conrete, etc, reminds him of that day, but hes there now, same thing same everthing.
yeah she might be dead, all of that makes perfect sense
but what if she just left him
he wants to turn around and know that shes there, but he wont cuz deep down she isnt
that statue that he molded in his mind
he preserved that vision of her that he saw her as
so now this girl will always be on a pedastal, his stone,
'so beautiful youll never move again'
he knows that he can never find someone who will live up to his version of him, he knows hes being unrealistic idealsitic and silly,
some place far away...bad light, littered,
he is remembering how it actually was, not that ideal nothing, just the raw version of what was there, not just how he decides to remember it
but remembers his regrets...she gave him her heart, or some form of devotion in her own special mind, true meaning would be dying with you..
but he doesnt return the sentiment
he wants to now, but the fact he was unsure then is intruinging.
he may have been shy, etc, but if he really had this devotion to her why didnt he say anything. in my mind he still puzzles over it
so he wants to make her something rough,something dangerous, constanty changing.
maybe he wants to drown himself in a river, true meaning would be dying with you.
but he wants her to be able to 'always meander, always be able to turn away'
so in my mind this is when she isnt dead
she left him, she was scared, she ran away without dealing with the things they both always misunderstood about each other
maybe thats why she left, she saw they were always on a different page
when your on a pedastal, nothing you say is considered. its idolized. brushed over. nothing
she wanted someone she could connect to regardless of her anything. just becasue of her. if she left, he would understand because he understood her. but dont we all want that, in the end?
But then he realizes that he's interpreting the myths wrong through pain, which is why he doesn't smile when she references Baucis & Philemon, the myth where they die together because he knows they can't. He's been interpreting the myths wrong.
Or maybe it could be a reference to the story of Selemnus, this guy who got turned into a river by Aphrodite because he died of love.
If he's saying he want's to turn the girl into a river instead of himself, maybe he's misinterpreting the myth because of the pain.
the part in the song about wishing to change someone into a raging river is like the myth of Alpheus and Arethusa, in which Athena changes Arethusa into a river to escape Alpheus;
the myth of Bauchis and Philemone in which they're turned into trees by the gods for their hospitality;
the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe in which there literally is a wall that separates them;
and finally the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea, in which he made a statue of the most beautiful woman, he fell in love with it.
Phew.
" I press my shoulder to this wall between us. I know you are behind me but I press my shoulder to this wall, determined not to turn around."
definite reference to this story.
I think J.K. Samson has modelled himself a modern day Orpheus and Eurydice. A man who's love died, and he'd do anything to get her back. he's haunted by memories of this woman who he loved.
Also- in regards to the "dying with you" line, after Orpheus lost Eurydice for the second time he wandered into the dance of the followers of Dionysus (drunk, half crazed and possibly drugged women), who ripped him apart.
His head floated across the ocean to Lesbos where it became an Oracle.
"...still that statue that I molded in my mind to kiss, so beautiful you'll never move again."
I'm confident that there are more myth references, that I don't understand, in this song.
sooo good:)