In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
"I'm here now, by your side" Sheltered from the cold, a soldier guards a boy.
Clocks are cutting as times pass by their pain
(bringing release through the book on his knees)
(keep trying, keep trying, keep dying inside)
"Hush now little child, it's time to say goodnight.
Find rest in my lullaby this night
I'll still be here when the nightmists draw near"
(blind figures controlling his life)
(keep falling, keep falling, keep falling down now)
"Have faith my son - reach for my hand and I'll walk with you till the sun goes down. Follow me now, we will meet again in your land.
(have faith my son) Now I'll lead you home."
Opening stillness, reaching through illness. They walk in nightmist.
"Now, we meet again. I'm so close to you now. Again we laugh."
Where shallow waters reach for unknown mystic shores
they gaze at the horizon and smile
"Behold my son - reach for the vision that fills your mind, just let go and run. Follow the path that was meant for you long ago. (behold my son) And cross the plains of dawn."
Wordless questions, tearful confessions.
They meet at last now, when it is time to go separate ways
(fading pages) They have touched through ages.
"Remember me my son, it's time to say...goodbye.
I'll free you from your prison - now go!
You're free now, the wave meets the shore!"
(keep running, keep running, keep running home kid)
(winning a war made him lose evermore)
"Farewell my son - the tubes that were straining you to a death within life are gone. Wait for us, I and your mother will cherish you my son. I cry as I'm watching you run across plains of dawn."
...and so through that evening a soldier is leaving his son once again
and a war has been lost...
Forlorn he is reeling, unmendably kneeling.
But fate leaves no choice: now he must close the book!
Clocks are cutting as times pass by their pain
(bringing release through the book on his knees)
(keep trying, keep trying, keep dying inside)
"Hush now little child, it's time to say goodnight.
Find rest in my lullaby this night
I'll still be here when the nightmists draw near"
(blind figures controlling his life)
(keep falling, keep falling, keep falling down now)
"Have faith my son - reach for my hand and I'll walk with you till the sun goes down. Follow me now, we will meet again in your land.
(have faith my son) Now I'll lead you home."
Opening stillness, reaching through illness. They walk in nightmist.
"Now, we meet again. I'm so close to you now. Again we laugh."
Where shallow waters reach for unknown mystic shores
they gaze at the horizon and smile
"Behold my son - reach for the vision that fills your mind, just let go and run. Follow the path that was meant for you long ago. (behold my son) And cross the plains of dawn."
Wordless questions, tearful confessions.
They meet at last now, when it is time to go separate ways
(fading pages) They have touched through ages.
"Remember me my son, it's time to say...goodbye.
I'll free you from your prison - now go!
You're free now, the wave meets the shore!"
(keep running, keep running, keep running home kid)
(winning a war made him lose evermore)
"Farewell my son - the tubes that were straining you to a death within life are gone. Wait for us, I and your mother will cherish you my son. I cry as I'm watching you run across plains of dawn."
...and so through that evening a soldier is leaving his son once again
and a war has been lost...
Forlorn he is reeling, unmendably kneeling.
But fate leaves no choice: now he must close the book!
Lyrics submitted by carlos_avdas
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This image is one of the most fascinatingly repulsive images I've ever had the doubtful pleasure to witness.
A soldier comes back to his homeland to find it in ruins. He sees a boy. He reminds him of his own son, whom he has lost a long time ago, when he went to fight in the war. He may or may not be his son. Somehow, i don't know how I got that the boy is more likely a son of an enemy. The boy, dying of an unspecified illness, is clinging to hope, but (if we combine the image with a very close one, the image Daniel paints with the lyrics of Oblivion Ocean) the soldier knows that his mother is dead. He stays with the boy all day and waits till he goes to sleep before doing what he, in the end, does... But here's the twist: The soldier drugs the boy, to give him a moment of happiness and lack of pain from his illness. The war-wrecked soldier, and the dying child act like father and son for this one day. They spend it happily. They stop at the shore of a body of water. (Oblivion Ocean?)
Then, with the boy lying in his arms, his back turned, asleep, hugged by the soldier... Look out, if you are faint of heart, don't read on.
The soldier slits the boys throat, delivering a blow of mercy, severing most his blood vessels to give him a fast and, due to the drugs and quick blood loss, painless death, knowing that he is doing the child a favor, shortening his time on this earth by only a few hours and sparing him a death of long agony. He shoves the body into the water, imagining the boy now happy and healthy in the everlasting plains of the afterlife. He vomits, down on his knees, and here the lyrics end, so only the music shows us what happens next. The last words, say that the soldier closes "the book"... The same book he was in the beginning using to "bring release" so I guess it must be the Bible. He closes it, which is a symbol of rejecting it, and the music becomes much harder and stronger, so I guess he stops his "silly" moment of being a merciful, loving human, and goes back to being a ruthless killing machine the war needs him to be.