He looked beneath his shirt today
There was a wound in his flesh so deep and wide
From the wound a lovely flower grew
From somewhere deep inside
He turned around to face his mother
To show her the wound in his breast that burned like a brand
But the sword that cut him open
Was the sword in his mother's hand

Every day another miracle
Only death will tear us apart
To sacrifice a life for yours
I'd be the blood of the Lazarus heart
The blood of the Lazarus heart

Though the sword was his protection
The wound itself would give him power
The power to remake himself
At the time of his darkest hour
She said the wound would give him courage and pain
The kind of pain that you can't hide
From the wound a lovely flower grew
From somewhere deep inside

Every day another miracle
Only death will keep us apart
To sacrifice a life for yours
I'd be the blood of the Lazarus heart
The blood of the Lazarus heart

Birds on the roof of my mother's house
I've no stones that chase them away
Birds on the roof of my mother's house
Will sit on my roof someday
They fly at the window, they fly at the door
Where does she get the strength to fight them anymore
She counts all her children as a shield against the rain
Lifts her eyes to the sky like a flower to the rain

Every day another miracle
Only death will keep us apart
To sacrifice a life for yours
I'd be the blood of the Lazarus heart
The blood of the Lazarus heart


Lyrics submitted by Novartza

The Lazarus Heart Lyrics as written by Gordon Sumner

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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The Lazarus Heart song meanings
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    General Comment

    In the liner notes for “Nothing Like the Sun,” Sting wrote, "...'Lazarus Heart' was a vivid nightmare that I wrote down and then fashioned into a song. A learned friend of mine informs me that it is the archetypical dream of the fisher king...can't I do anything original?"

    [Michael Baty]: The Fisher King is an old character from mythology about which I don't understand a great deal. But, the basis of him seems to be that he is a tragic figure who is constantly searching for the thing that is staring at him in the face, but he never, or seldom realises. Perhaps a more pertinent link to the song is in the title: Lazarus, who is of course the biblical character who is brought back from the dead by Christ. This is echoed in the song via the wound the character in the song finds, and despite the pain inflicted, the wound brings forward a great thing, life (in the shape of a flower). I guess another strand in all this is the fact that not long before this album Sting's mother died, so the song ties in the images of death and pain with the mother figure, and a realisation that her fate will be a fate that we will all share ("Birds on the roof of my mother's house, no stone to chase them away, birds on the roof of my mother's house, sit on my own roof some day"). In this last passage there is also a feeling of guilt and helplessness in the face of the death of a loved one, and in Sting's case a symbol of a life left behind (he didn't go to the funeral in Newcastle for he felt that it would turn it into a media event, so this was denied him). But for all this it is an up-beat song, and the final verse illustrates that we all live on in our children ("they fly at the windows they fly at the wall, where does she get the strength to fight them anymore, counts all her children as a shield against the pain, turns her eyes to the sky like a flower to the rain"). Returning to the imagery of the flower; regrowth and hope.

    sillybunnyon August 26, 2006   Link

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