It's about mortality. The dreamless sleep is death. Martin Luther used that phrase to describe death in his writings. All of the lyrics juxtapose the briefness of life to the foolishness of not living wisely. An abacus is used for counting, implying that the singer is haunted by reminders of the finiteness of life. For that matter, a bird coming to a window is a classic symbol that death will soon come to the person living there.
It's about mortality. The dreamless sleep is death. Martin Luther used that phrase to describe death in his writings. All of the lyrics juxtapose the briefness of life to the foolishness of not living wisely. An abacus is used for counting, implying that the singer is haunted by reminders of the finiteness of life. For that matter, a bird coming to a window is a classic symbol that death will soon come to the person living there.