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So you say I'm better off here
As dry as the shoreline
In an ocean of fear
So you say I can't be alive
Until there is nothing
When we're meeting eyes again
Day by day, I wander these halls
And you're casting a shadow
Onto every wall
But all the way you ring in my ear
From the moment I knew you were leaving me here.
You're leaving me here.
This give and take,
This waiting on time
It's this twisted up memory that I can't unwind
These fragile words that fall from my mouth
I'm crumbling and crowded
But I've figured you out
I've figured you out
The shoreline calls the sea
For simple words and company
But words go on and on
Til they collide and all is gone.
I dive into the deep
Into the sea inside of me
To find another song
To find a place where I belong
As dry as the shoreline
In an ocean of fear
So you say I can't be alive
Until there is nothing
When we're meeting eyes again
Day by day, I wander these halls
And you're casting a shadow
Onto every wall
But all the way you ring in my ear
From the moment I knew you were leaving me here.
You're leaving me here.
This give and take,
This waiting on time
It's this twisted up memory that I can't unwind
These fragile words that fall from my mouth
I'm crumbling and crowded
But I've figured you out
I've figured you out
The shoreline calls the sea
For simple words and company
But words go on and on
Til they collide and all is gone.
I dive into the deep
Into the sea inside of me
To find another song
To find a place where I belong
Lyrics submitted by thepianominstrel
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Here's my translation analysis...
So you say I’m better of here
As dry as the shoreline
In an ocean of fear
→ You tell me I can’t fall for you and can’t love you, because the ‘ocean of fear’, the depth of falling in love is too much for me. But in reality, it’s too much for you, and because you leave yourself at the shore you say I should stay there too
So you say I can’t be alive
Until there is nothing
When we’re meeting eyes again
→ You tell me that what we’re feeling is keeping me from living my life, from doing the things I want to do & the things you want to do. So we have to dilute and ignore what we’re feeling or else we will reach ‘death’, according to you, death of the individual, safe from emotion & its rough waves & tumbles.
Day by day, I wander these halls
And you’re casting a shadow
Onto every wall
→ Even though I continue living my life as it is, you follow me everywhere like a shadow. You are apart of me, apart of what I feel; you change me with every moment we have been together.
But all the way you ring in my ear
From the moment I knew you were leaving me here.
You’re leaving me here.
→ I have not been able to forget what you told me–that you can’t fall for me and therefore I cannot fall in love with you. We’re at the shoreline. Dry, empty, heartbroken.
This give and take,
This waiting on time
It’s this twisted up memory that I can’t unwind
→ Knowing that something could happen between us, with the fact that we are together and that we feel something for each other, gives me hope that we might be able to be together. But you don’t allow us to be together. I can’t reconcile this fact–that we were meant to be but we can’t be.
These fragile words that fall from my mouth
I’m crumbling and crowded
But I’ve figured you out
I’ve figured you out
→ I bare my soul for you, I let you in the depths of my heart–I say things that I can’t tell anyone else. But you disregard its fragility and crush it. Maybe you never loved me at all. Maybe I’m just fooling myself. It pains me that I’ve lived an illusion.
[Note that the falsetto is strictly for these two stanzas–meaning they mirror each other. A sort of hopeful, childish and innocent (i.e. young boys have high voices) perspective]
The shoreline calls the sea
For simple words and company
But words go on and on
Till they collide and all is gone.
→ I want to go beyond the ‘shoreline’ where you’ve left me at and take the fall. Despite that I might be left heart broken, it’s better than just waiting by the shore. However…perhaps my motivation for this is really to cure the deep loneliness within.
I dive into the deep
Into the sea inside of me
To find another song
To find a place where I belong
→I understand now that to love and fall for someone else you must first love yourself. You can’t fill this emptiness for ‘simple words and company’ from someone else. You can only find it within yourself. So I’m going to take the plunge, the risk, but this time it’s not someone else–this time it’s for me.
To discover who I really am.
It took a long time to finally figure this out. What do you guys think? :)
This song is about our separation from and longing for God.
Instead of living in heaven with God, we're left on earth.
This is like being left dry on the shoreline, only being able to see the surface of the sea(God's glory and heaven), wanting to dive in and experience the freshness and depth. In order to be with God again, we need to be emptied of ourselves and our sins and be filled instead with love. While we live on earth, we can see evidence of God all around us, but our whole knowledge of Him is us living separated from Him because of our imperfection. We long to be with God and call out to him in song and prayer, but if we were with Him in our imperfection and sin, His perfection verses our imperfection would leave us destroyed. So we need to dig deep into the mess of sin inside of ourselves in order to sort out how to die to ourselves and be more like God, so we can better understand Him and our place in His presence.
as dry as the shoreline
in an ocean of fear'
he is dry, losing the life in him, because he is persuaded that everything will be fine, he is scared
'so you say i cant be alive
until there is nothing'
so basically if he doesnt act, any problem will continue to sink him further.'
'youre casting a shadow onto every wall'
wherever he goes, the other person overshadows him
the rest explains itself,
'the shoreline calls the sea for simple words and company but words go on and on until they collide and all is gone'
words can go wherever, but in the end it wont matter.
you need to SHOW that you mean your words.
the last stanza explains itself, he is going to take a chance and stop living where he is stuck in this fog.
The speaker is lamenting the loss of their lover.
A lover who told them
"you're better off here"
the speaker feels like they cant be alive again until they look into the eyes of the person who left them, because of course, they still want them back.
Every hall they walk through reminds them of happier times when they were with the person they loved. Every thing they see reminds them of what was lost.
And they cant think of anything else....
all they can do is wait.
Though they feel broken and confused, time helped them figured out the reason for their lover's dissaperance...or the why they did the things they did....
so the speaker compares their love to how the shoreline needs the sea to be complete. But the words that the lover spoke were meaningless because now they are gone.
Last...the speaker realizes that they have to find themselves again. (Because if they dont, they wont be able to love again..)
"To find another song...to find a place, where I belong"
It makes more sense to me as:
So you say, "I can't be alive
Until there is nothing
When we're meeting eyes again."
Either way, actually. They cannot live fully until they've gotten over the other.
Well, Hershey has it all covered pretty well.
On the final stanza, diving into his own "sea" sounds more like learning to love oneself / becoming complete or content on your own.
Finding another song could be any number of things. A new perspective, aspect of themselves, a new love.
A place, too, could be interpreted in a few ways. A new place as a new or refined person, or a place at all. Perhaps after the loss they realized they were in a place that didn't fit, or never had a place at all-only that love.
Until there is nothing
When we're meeting eyes again
You're not alive until you build a genuine and real relationship with Christ. And you can't have a relationship with him until you let go of your old self, old desires, everything, and leave nothing in between you and Him.
So you say I'm better off here
As dry as the shoreline
In an ocean of fear
she tells him they should be apart from each other and his mind is scared cus he does not want to be alone without her
So you say I can't be alive
Until there is nothing
When we're meeting eyes again
this verse is so sad. i feel that she says she wont see him again till he has no feelings for her again hence "Until there is nothing when we're meeting eyes again"
Day by day, I wander these halls
And you're casting a shadow
Onto every wall
he misses her so much that he is reminded of her constantly. maybe they lived together and every time he wanders around the house remembering everything about her:(
But all the way you ring in my ear
From the moment I knew you were leaving me here.
You're leaving me here.
This give and take,
This waiting on time
It's this twisted up memory that I can't unwind
he thinks about her constantly but he knows she's made up her mind and is leaving him. the memories he has are so beautiful which makes it harder for him to accept the breakup. hes waiting on time to heal his wounds but it isnt easy
These fragile words that fall from my mouth
I'm crumbling and crowded
But I've figured you out
I've figured you out
the fragile words would probably mean him begging her to stay telling her he loves her,these words hes writing his sad love song. hes finally getting to the realization that she really doesnt want him
The shoreline calls the sea
For simple words and company
But words go on and on
Til they collide and all is gone.
I dive into the deep
Into the sea inside of me
To find another song
To find a place where I belong
im sure this has happened to someone that has been left by their lover. when the depression of the breakup gets too much sometimes he calls her just cus he wants to hear her voice and he tries to talk to her in hopes that she might change her mind but the conversation always turns into a dead end and finally all that is left is to dive deep into himself and pick his pieces up and rebuild again.find someone who would love and appreciate him. find a new love:)
this song is amazing. deas vail is too good for words. i love their lyrics so much
i hope this helps:)