Harvester Of Sorrow

JoeMaster bullseyed it; thats the original meaning intended by the composer(s). Very straight forward.

Never the less, I like to think that beyond that straight forward meaning there's also an obscurant or faithfull one. It's a general complaint from a man directly to God himself - (sort of like a angry prayer if you wish), about how the poor evolution of his life ("My life suffocates, Planting seeds of Hate"; "I love, turned to hate"; "you turned this lie to truth"; "I give, you take, this life that I forsake"), turned into a present state of total frustration, considering facts and indicators that could initially point in his favor (youth, innocence, inconditional love torwads life and people).

With "Anger, Misery, You'll Suffer unto Me", God responds to him in his particular, intangible and superior way, like a true and all mighty master submits servants, by telling them that in order to reach his symphaty (and whatever that can lead to), he must first suffer to gain His trust...you know, to be reliable. To me, "You'll Suffer unto Me" is a too strong verse to refer simply to bad parent towards his child, or to any sort of "booze itself" torwads any drunk. But it fits nicelly if u think it's God. With "your loss becomes my gain", eventually the guy compreends that God knows that all his sacrifice will obvisously mean little or nothing to him in his mortal, short and pathetic life, but will certainly favour Him, in a misterious and much superior way.

The complainging comes from a man who has a life not even close to what he once expected it to be, or thinks or thought he deserved - this based in a self-judgement he makes of his once young self - a pure, innocent and highly energized and life-loving child - "I loved, turned to hate". The self judment is also implied in "been cheated of my youth" and "trapped far beyond my fate". It all helps building the obvious frustration. The background can be only one: poor, if not horrible, but at least neglectful - parenting.

In the end, he's feels so miserably torwards life, he senses he's got nothing else to give or fight for, thus leading him to start feeling he's closed to dying, or at least he can no longer feel that life welcomes him, but instead its death he senses coming closer (Pure Black Looking Clear, My Work Is Done Soon Here). At this point, God then tries to encourage him by a very tricky and dubious verse: "Try Getting Back to Me; Get Back Which Used to Be". This could mean God wants him to love life again, like he did in his young age, by whatever "good means" necessary.

In the end, the man remembers times he thought of murdering ppl as a way of ending great sources of the suffering (this could've come in momments of getting bullied, for instance, as many bullied children actually think or even dream of assassinating their agressors).