When you take the metaphors out, this is about being hunted and suffering:
'I did not know
And I could not see
Who was waiting there,
Who was hunting me.'
The singer registers with us that he felt hunted. That's an emergency, an existential emergency, it's hardly comfy.
This is what the hunter did to him:
'And he cut my lip
And he cut my heart.
So I could not drink
From the river dark.'
The singer was cut. He had been addicted or incorrigible to the love of Babylon and could only be disenchanted by this brutality of love.
'And he gave the wind
My wedding ring
And he circled us
With everything.'
That's a lovely thing, naturally sad because the singer had been both the hunted and the hunter all along.
How come?
'And he covered me,
And I saw within,'
The singer is now covered by the hunter (the word hunter covers him in the sense of it applying). Only now can he see. (Previously, he 'could not see'). 'And I saw within'. He saw (understood) the pain of life counched here in terms of the self-division involved in conflicting fidelities:
My lawless heart
And my wedding ring,
The singer is the hunter now and he has succeeded in the conquest of himself.
'And he gave the wind
My wedding ring
And he circled us
With everything.'
Everything contained within the ring, the ring of unity, invisibility, purity.
When you take the metaphors out, this is about being hunted and suffering:
'I did not know And I could not see Who was waiting there, Who was hunting me.'
The singer registers with us that he felt hunted. That's an emergency, an existential emergency, it's hardly comfy.
This is what the hunter did to him:
'And he cut my lip And he cut my heart. So I could not drink From the river dark.'
The singer was cut. He had been addicted or incorrigible to the love of Babylon and could only be disenchanted by this brutality of love.
'And he gave the wind My wedding ring And he circled us With everything.'
That's a lovely thing, naturally sad because the singer had been both the hunted and the hunter all along.
How come?
'And he covered me, And I saw within,'
The singer is now covered by the hunter (the word hunter covers him in the sense of it applying). Only now can he see. (Previously, he 'could not see'). 'And I saw within'. He saw (understood) the pain of life counched here in terms of the self-division involved in conflicting fidelities:
My lawless heart And my wedding ring,
The singer is the hunter now and he has succeeded in the conquest of himself.
'And he gave the wind My wedding ring And he circled us With everything.'
Everything contained within the ring, the ring of unity, invisibility, purity.