Lyrics for This Woman's Work as interpreted by Rosiega1218

This Woman's Work Lyrics
Pray God you can cope.
I stand outside this woman's work,
This woman's world.
Ooh, it's hard on the man,
Now his part is over.
Now starts the craft of the father.

I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.
I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.

I should be crying, but I just can't let it show.
I should be hoping, but I can't stop thinking

Of all the things I should've said,
That I never said.
All the things we should've done,
That we never did.
All the things I should've given,
But I didn't.

Oh, darling, make it go,
Make it go away.

Give me these moments back.
Give them back to me.
Give me that little kiss.
Give me your hand.

(I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.
I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.)

I should be crying, but I just can't let it show.
I should be hoping, but I can't stop thinking

Of all the things we should've said,
That were never said.
All the things we should've done,
That we never did.
All the things that you needed from me.
All the things that you wanted for me.
All the things that I should've given,
But I didn't.

Oh, darling, make it go away.
Just make it go away now.

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  • 38 Comments
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girlybat
02-28-2002

Rated 0 
UGH! this song absolutely slays me. one of kate's best. i mean, how many songs can truly claim to induce spontaneous sobbing fits??? wow.

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wisty*eyed
05-05-2002

Rated 0 
this is the best crying song ever...

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scheisse
05-09-2002

Rated 0 
i love this song. i hate that terrible new cover of it... ugh...

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Finding The Words
05-17-2002

Rated 0 
this song is so engulfing. listening to it brings a million different thoughts to life. she has perfectly illustrated the notion of lost love.

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KFurber
09-24-2002

Rated 0 
Could this girl BE any better? This song is a great song, it has meaning...but I think it's open to interpretation, you know, one of those ones that strikes a chord deep within you but it can be different for everyone.

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Gutterlove
03-20-2003

Rated 0 
I heard this song on the movie, 'She's Having A Baby' and 'Crossing Jordan'. And normally, I wouldn't cry, but.. this song is so heartachingly beautiful. I swear she sobs at the beginning of it.

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musicianwannabe
03-30-2003

Rated 0 
when i heard it in shes having a baby i was so heartbroken because its so beautiful and sad... and then a version of it is in love and basketball which makes it all sexual which is ok too... ;-)

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Lici
10-12-2004

Rated 0 
Obviously, it's a beautiful song. So relaxing and nice and Kate's voice is just amazing. But then again, i think that anyway, on every song of hers she sounds amazing. I love her voice! I've never seen the films this song is supposed to be in and at first i didn't really know the story behind it. All of Kate's songs seem so deep and profound. It certainly makes me feel inadequate as a person, let alone a writer! But all i can say is...beautiful song, beautiful voice.

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tsllimit
03-31-2005

Rated 0 
The words, title and melody of this song sung by her construes about a hundred different meanings. Beautiful beyond belief. It makes me love being a girl. :)

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werumm
09-04-2005

Rated 0 
haha tsllimit, Im male but when I listen to this song I want to be a girl. It's amazing.

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mahalia
10-02-2005

Rated 0 
When my sister was sick I couldn't listen to this without crying.

'I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.
I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.'

this part was me pleading with her to get better. it's so haunting.

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Paega
12-06-2005

Rated 0 
I think the song ties together her feelings on her dying mother and her own pregnancy. It's incredibly sad and beautiful :(

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strangenoise
01-07-2006

Rated 0 
is that what it mean Paega? This is the only kate bush song ive heard, but i love it. heard it first on alias, when she sits in the same bathtub she found her dead fiancee

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LucyLu_is
01-27-2006

Rated 0 
It seems like this songs split between having a baby and breaking up with someone.

The chorus and the bit

'I should be crying, but I just can't let it show.
I should be hoping, but I can't stop thinking'

sound like its about a baby thats ill and she doesn't want it to die.

But the rest of the song is like when your breaking up with someone you actually love, but its just not working out.

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lanesra
03-04-2006

Rated 0 
i love this song so much. i haven't heard the whole song before but i would really love to. i heard it on the nspcc advert on tv. it just makes me want to cry.

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precipitate
03-13-2006

Rated 0 
this is beautiful. I also like maxwell's cover.

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FilibusterMan
03-13-2006

Rated +1 
I first heard this song during the waiting room scene in She's Having a Baby.
The whole is about having a baby. It is from the father's perspective (I stand outside this woman's work, This woman's world.).
There are complications, and the lives of both mother and child are threatened.
The father is worried out of his mind and starts thinking on what might happen if his beloved and their child are gone forever. He is helpless and is left with guilt and memories that he wants his lover to make go away by pulling through, by being okay.

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LITTLEWING13
05-10-2006

Rated 0 
I first heard this song used on a preview to the TV program E.R.
The first time I heard it, it touched me with it's sadness and made me feel like crying. So now it's one of my favorite 'sad mood' songs.

I get two meanings from the song.
The first is about how much is expected and demanded of you as woman, wife, mother, etc.
How people you love you seem oblivious to how much they take from you and still expect more, like you can go on forever.

The second is that it was written from a man's perspective. How men hold back from giving emotionally, or have difficulty expressing emotions. Especially those emotions that could make others see them as weak and vulnerable.
The line ' Pray God you can cope' is the woman's only line.

Whatever the meaning, totally subjective, the song is more brilliance from Kate.

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Lugosi_
06-04-2006

Rated 0 
I always thought this was about the affects a mother's death has on the family she's left behind.

"Pray God you can cope.
I stand outside this woman's work,
This woman's world." This tells me the narrative is basically hoping the family can cope without her.

"Ooh, it's hard on the man,
Now his part is over." To me, this is referring to the man's part as a husband, this is over now as his wife has gone. This carries on into the line
"Now starts the craft of the father." which means that without a mother in the family, the father's role will become more prominent and necessary.

"I should be crying, but I just can't let it show.
I should be hoping, but I can't stop thinking

Of all the things I should've said,
That I never said.
All the things we should've done,
That we never did.
All the things I should've given,
But I didn't."

For me, this part is either the deceased mother or someone she has left behind regretting the things she/they missed out on doing with each other.

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rikku
06-18-2006

Rated 0 
i always thought when she said 'now starts the craft of the father' she meant God, and how he can be a bitch sometimes

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quebecsuperstar
07-21-2006

Rated 0 
I have a somewhat different comprehension of this oh-so-beautiful song. To me, this song deals with the difficulty of watching your kids grow up and eventually become independent individuals as well as hoping you gave your kids all they needed to become fully fonctional as adults in Life. All of this through the eyes (voice?) of the mother of an expecting woman.

"I stand outside this woman's work"
"This woman's world"
(I have to know and accept my role as a grandmother and not intervene inappropriately in my grandchild's life because it's not MY kid)

"Ooh, it's hard on the man"
"Now his part is over"
"Now starts the craft of the father"
(Any father as sensible as I am agrees that it's hard for a man to accept that men have such a little contribution in the "creation" process that it almost makes us feel obsolete)

"I know you have a little life in you yet"
"I know you have a lot of strength left"
(I know how you feel now that you're expecting but I also know how strong you are)

"I should be crying, but I just can't let it show"
"I should be hoping, but I can't stop thinking"
"Of all the things I should've said"
"That I never said"
"All the things we should've done"
"That we never did"
"All the things I should've given"
"But I didn't"
(Ultimately, parents are worried that they may have made the wrong choices concerning their beloved kids throughout their life as parents and ultimately, wrong choices will have been made. It's just so hard to accept that!)

"Oh, darling, make it go"
"Make it go away"
(Please, tell me you understand that everything I did for you I did with your well-being in mind, whatever the results were)

"Give me these moments back"
"Give them back to me"
"Give me that little kiss"
"Give me your hand"
(I remember when you were my little girl. I so miss those precious moments we had)

This song just rips my heart out. Being a parent is really the most beautiful and most terrible thing that a human being can live.

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freud
07-30-2006

Rated 0 
I agree that its about kids and parents, and if they have provided enough for them, hence its use on the new NSPCC advert.

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jericson
05-01-2007

Rated 0 
I think that from Kate Bush's perspective this song is about a man losing his wife and not ever really opening up to her the way he knows he should have. Watch her video on youtube and I think that everyone will agree because she pretty much spells it out for you. I believe that the song is from both the husband's perspective and the ghost of the dead wife's perspective.

Pray God you can cope.
I stand outside this woman's work, this woman's world.
Ooh, it's hard on the man,
Now his part is over.
Now starts the craft of the father.
(This first part is the only real part that confuses me because I am not sure exactly who's perspective it is from. "Pray God you can cope" sounds to me like the wife's praying that her husband will be okay now that she is gone. On the other hand "I stand outside this woman's work, this woman's world" sounds like it is from the husband's perspective. This part does kind of sound like a woman having a child and a man not being able to take part in that, but the video does not make it seem like this at all. I could see why these lines might make someone think that it was about having children. The part that states "Now starts the craft of the father" is definitely about God stepping in once the wife dies. It is not about children like people were saying, at least not from Kate Bush's perspective.)

I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.
I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.
(When this part of the song starts all of a sudden the wife appears next to the husband. I believe this is the ghost of the wife trying to tell him to be strong and that he will make it.)

I should be crying, but I just can't let it show.
I should be hoping, but I can't stop thinking of all the things I should've said, that I never said.
All the things we should've done, that we never did.
All the things I should've given, but I didn't.
Oh, darling, make it go, make it go away.
Give me these moments back.
Give them back to me.
Give me that little kiss.
Give me your hand.
(This part is the man feeling remorseful over never being able to express the emotions that he knows he should have expressed. I agree with LITTLEWING13 when he mentioned men holding back from giving emotionally, or having difficulty expressing emotions. The husband knew that he did this and he felt terrible once his wife was gone, knowing that he would never be able to see her, touch her or tell her how much he loved her again.)

I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.
I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.
(Once again this is from the dead wife's perspective. Watch the video and I think you will agree with me.)

I should be crying, but I just can't let it show.
I should be hoping, but I can't stop thinking of all the things we should've said, that were never said.
All the things we should've done, that we never did.
All the things that you needed from me.
All the things that you wanted for me.
All the things that I should've given, but I didn't.
Oh, darling, make it go away.
Just make it go away now.
(Once again from the husband's perspective. He is so sad that his wife is gone and he just wants the pain to go away.)

I could be wrong about a few parts, but I believe it is pretty much correct.

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jericson
05-01-2007

Rated 0 
Me again. I watched the video one more time and now I am a little more confused. Now I think that the husband was actually saying all these things in the waiting room, not knowing yet if his wife was alive or dead. The wife appearing makes it seem like she is gone, but he just doesn't know it yet.

The most perplexing part was the very end though. At the very end of the video the nurse walks out and starts talking to the husband with a smile. The husband gets a very ambiguous look on his face leaving the end open to interpretation on whether or not she lived or died. This would be cool to make it open ended like that, but the wife constantly appearing throughout the video telling him he will be alright makes me think that she died. Who knows, maybe she died and they brought her back. The end just confused the hell out of me. What does everyone else think?

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PITONES
06-22-2007

Rated 0 
good stuff, im glad i know kate bushs music

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