@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Rusalka, Rusalka your arms out of water
Your hair like an alien bloom
Dark-eyed Rusalka, your brow tressed in flowers
Pale in a liminal moon
And all that you are is a star on the water
When first I went swimming, I heeded no warning
And dared breach your rippling pool
As I lulled and lingered, the ring slipped my finger
And drifted down the deepening cool
And all that I want is to fall in your shallows
And now we are wed, the water our bed
And bank to bank a property lake
And you are my wild-eyed rusalka, my river bride
Drag me down, take me away
And here we will lie, you and I, 'neath the cold, dark sky
Beware the wild rushes, my mother told me
That grow on the bank side along the salt sea
But I being young, I heeded her none
So to the wild rushes the wind carried me
The summer was here and the sun it was high
And to the wild rushes I came by and by
And there took my seat and dipped in my feet
When through the wild rushes, a voice sweetly cried
Come down, my little darling, come closer to me
The water is warm; it is salty and free
I long for your touch but I won't ask too much
And I, being foolish, walked in to my knees
Come down, little darling, and lay at my breast
Oh come a little closer and I'll do the rest
I waited so long for a lover to come
And I, being foolish, walked in to my chest
Come down, my little darling, oh farther come in
For deeper the water, the sweeter the sin
My lily lies here, if you'd only draw near
And I, being foolish, went in to my chin
Oh come, my little darling, do you feel my cool breath?
Do you feel my arms around you so warm and so wet?
Swept from my feet, she pulled me beneath
And in the wild rushes, I went to my death
Your hair like an alien bloom
Dark-eyed Rusalka, your brow tressed in flowers
Pale in a liminal moon
And all that you are is a star on the water
When first I went swimming, I heeded no warning
And dared breach your rippling pool
As I lulled and lingered, the ring slipped my finger
And drifted down the deepening cool
And all that I want is to fall in your shallows
And now we are wed, the water our bed
And bank to bank a property lake
And you are my wild-eyed rusalka, my river bride
Drag me down, take me away
And here we will lie, you and I, 'neath the cold, dark sky
Beware the wild rushes, my mother told me
That grow on the bank side along the salt sea
But I being young, I heeded her none
So to the wild rushes the wind carried me
The summer was here and the sun it was high
And to the wild rushes I came by and by
And there took my seat and dipped in my feet
When through the wild rushes, a voice sweetly cried
Come down, my little darling, come closer to me
The water is warm; it is salty and free
I long for your touch but I won't ask too much
And I, being foolish, walked in to my knees
Come down, little darling, and lay at my breast
Oh come a little closer and I'll do the rest
I waited so long for a lover to come
And I, being foolish, walked in to my chest
Come down, my little darling, oh farther come in
For deeper the water, the sweeter the sin
My lily lies here, if you'd only draw near
And I, being foolish, went in to my chin
Oh come, my little darling, do you feel my cool breath?
Do you feel my arms around you so warm and so wet?
Swept from my feet, she pulled me beneath
And in the wild rushes, I went to my death
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher
Rusalka, Rusalka / Wild Rushes Lyrics as written by Colin Meloy
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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A rusalka is a spirit of a woman who died in water. Either by accident, suicide, or murder. They use their beauty and their promises of skinny-dipping to lure men into the water, and then they drowned them.
The narrator is a man who is in that young state of mind of rebelling against his parents. He sees a rusalka, gives into her temptations, and she drowns him.
Colin says that he didn't like that there was misogyny in old folk songs, so he wrote a song where it's a man being foolish.
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I get a slightly different vibe between the two sides of this song.
In the first, the thing that strikes me is the line "As I lulled and lingered, the ring slipped my finger". Why does a man usually wear a ring that would be significant in this case? He's married.
His attitude is different than in wild rushes. He's happy to "die" for his new "bride". My simple interpretation is a man unhappy in marriage, who is happy to die. I'm not sure death is literal here though. It might just mean the end of what his life was if you want to have an open interpretation.
In wild rushes, the young man is foolish. He doesn't know what's about to happen. He doesn't know what he's getting into. In this case, if you want a more open interpretation, it ends a simple childlike state, he can't undo what happens, be that pregnancy or disease or maybe just emotional harm from a terrible relationship. Actually, this may not even be in reference to sexual temptation at all. It could be any alluring idea or situation that will cause ruin in the end.
There are promises made to the young man, but the subject using to tempt him (sex) is in theory never delivered. That means that whomever or whatever is tempting him has no intention of giving him what he wants.
Traditionally this situation is warning young men not to sin. In this case "the sin is sweeter" is explicitly referenced but I doubt Colin would mean it in the traditional sense. I have to imagine sin here is meaning indulgence that leads to harm.