Aœde

AÅ“de was one of the three original Muses, and she was the Muse of song. I think that the meaning of this song (at least, one of the possible meanings) is that Raymond is doing a "laud" to AÅ“de because she gives him the power of singing and writing poems: Parched of words [...], I beseech more (words). I lap of you, I need you. [...] Wash me in your floret (or in your avail? Who knows...), I want more! [...] I let you come into me.

Theatre of Tragedy is mostly in Old/Middle English, the following is my non-scholarly translation of the text of the song, with interpretative notations. --- "Parch'd of words, parch'd of lauds," ~ thirsty for words, thirsty for praise (Or possibly Morning Prayer [Lauds] but ~likely not as that's named for praise as well) "Lorn and tyned fro my wame -" ~ forlorn and lost from my woman/women " 'Seech I more perforce indeed:" ~ Beseech (beg) I more by force of circumstances indeed ~ (Because of circumstance I must beg for more obviously) "Lap I of thee: Thou art want." ~ to lick up a little of you, you are desire "With dulcet gust thine floret," ~ with a sweet soft breath of air your tiny flower ~ (maybe a metaphor for lady parts, you can guess I get the feeling this means ~ "With soft breath I breath upon your..." well, you know.) "Which I yet would not do -" ~ Which I wouldn't do still ~ (I feel this is meant "I'd be doing it still if I could") "Pray I thee for thine avail -" ~ I pray to you for your use/benefit "Lave me in it; I want more!" ~ Wash/sooth me with it (your love/sex); I want more! "For my loe, not be adust." ~ For my love is not withered from lack of water/burned As of *[lote] - $[upon thee dote], ~ As of *[Lote has 3 possible definitions, I suspect it may be a poetic license ~ for "late" since "as of late" means recently. It could also mean "lotus" which ~ is used as a halucinogen so perhaps the phrase means "as upon a ~ lotus(drug)"; The final possibility is that lote means "to lurk/to be hidden" ~ which could mean something like "As of the hidden truth"] ~$[upon thee dote,] ~you I adore "*[Lowing 'tis,] $[true forsooth]," ~*[it brings me low. (or perhaps as a refrence to the lowing of cattle, getting calf ~eyed over her?) ] ~$[true for truth (forsooth was used as an expression of respect, esp. to ~women; "for truth" is it's literal definition. Here I feel there's both of feeling of ~meaning he's saying he swears it's true, and a way of being in keeping with ~the tone that the speaker is speaking to his woman/women)] "Tisn't a tongue, nay merely mote," ~It isn't a tougue, no just a small particle of something (though mote also refers ~to both a group of people meeting or a flourish on a hunter's horn, the ~definition given seems the most likely.) "Thou art grandly mae than couth':" ~You are grandly more than refined (Couth also has an archic meaning of ~"known" could be taken in the biblical sense of known or the natrual sense. ~He more than knows you as a person, or he more than knows you sexually) "Eft and e'er doth it eke -" ~Eft can mean again or afterwards either works for this constructions, eke ~means to increase or lengthen thusly: "Again and ever does it increase" or ~"Afterward and ever does it lengthen" (I'll leave that to your imagination shall I?) "I am what I do behold." ~I am what I do see. "For my loe, not be adust." ~For my love is not withered from lack of water/burned "Come see as the wind: Chant -" ~Come behold as the wind: Sing - "I let thee come in -" ~I let you come in "Come see as the wind, Aoede." ~Come behold as the wind, Aoede.* Further Note: Aoede is the name given to one of three Boeotian Muses, who predate, and are rather subsumed by, the nine muses known in classical literature. It is thought that there was only one muse originally, who was replaced by Aoede(song) and her sisters Melete(Thought) and Mneme (Memorization), they were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Goddess of Memory), since anyone who had to know something later had to commit it to memory or do without. Though part of me takes this as an indication that this very sexualized set of lyrics could actually refer to the pleasure of a singer, or perhaps implies a singer in love with the Muse herself.