| Vienna Teng – Recessional Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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My interpretation is a business woman at a train station, a little girl next to her has fallen asleep on her shoulder. She starts to think about her life, why she doesn't want children; these reasons seem inconsequential, in fact she has "forgot[ten]" this "reason" - most likely that it will put an end to, or severely inconvenience, her professional life. On the board there is a announcement for a missing child, "they're looking for [her]". The narrator is "afraid to move", afraid to end the 'fantasy'. She then wonders who is she "taking coffee, no sugar"; 'living' only the bitter and serious aspects of life. "Who are you, echoing street signs? Who are you, the stranger in the shell of a lover, Dark curtains drawn by the passage of time?" This section is slightly more open to interpratation. "Who are you, echoing street signs?" Is she, the narrator, falling into the belief that to be happy she must have children? "Who are you, the stranger in the shell of a lover." Since 'you' is used interchangeably for both the narrator and subject of her attention during the course of the song, I will give my meaning for both possibilities. The child is a stranger to her, though they represent something much deeper, the unconditional love she could recieve. If the narrator is reffering to herself as the stranger, she believes she is pretending to be something other than what she is, a mother. "Dark curtains drawn by the passage of time." Could be the fantasy coming to an end as the inevitable happens and the girl wakes, or the fact that as time passes, the "dark curtains are drawn" on the chances of her having children of her own. "Oh, words, like rain, how sweet the sound. 'Well anyway,' she says, 'I'll see you around...'" "I'll see you around..." "Words, [light] like rain" and dismissive; and yet they sound so "sweet" to the narrator. They are the assurance that the daughter/son, this girl represents, is possible. I expected dissapointment at the end, the first time I heard this song; yet it ends on a positive note. |
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