| Beirut – The Peacock Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I really love this song. It is so short and says very little, but says so much and is so powerful at the same time. My humble interpretation is that this song is figuratively and literally about war. It’s about the tension between two sides. He compares himself to a solider Sometimes the tension eases, but then it comes back — the “cold” or “winter”. When he states that he has fell down in the narrow lanes and laid on the ground, I feel like he was giving up or surrendering, but then he shakes the trees to see what shakes out of them — like he is exerting all of his energy to survive. Then he talks about a city where nobody hears — maybe he feels as though this relationship or situation is like all of his thoughts, feelings and emotions are falling on deaf ears. The bird comes and signifies winter, meaning the beginning of another “war”. Berlin, Berlin could be in reference to Berlin being split apart in the result of a war. “Among the camp we’re done with him” to me this means that these conflicts and “wars” are never ending and they are over all of the tension and that is what the bird symbolizes. “We’d shoot him down, but then, but then. Where should I begin, begin. He’s the only one who knows the words.” He is referencing shooting down the bird and to me this means that he wants the war to end so badly, but at the same time he would feel lost without it. Where would he begin? This bird knows the history so, in a way, it is comforting. A peacock used to symbolize immortality because it was said that the flesh did not decay after death. My interpretation of the title is that this “war” my end, but the effects will linger possibly forever. |
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