Per the FAQ on Keane's website, Keane's drummer Richard Hughes, stated the following:
"We've been asked whether "Somewhere Only We Know" is about a specific place, and Tim has been saying that, for him, or us as individuals, it might be about a geographical space, or a feeling; it can mean something individual to each person, and they can interpret it to a memory of theirs... It's perhaps more of a theme rather than a specific message... Feelings that may be universal, without necessarily being totally specific to us, or a place, or a time..."
With the nostalgic sentiment and the overall tone of the song, I think Keane is attempting to express a Portuguese term known as 'saudade', which does not have a direct English translation but roughly means "that which we remember because it is gone."
I didn't really walk away I had something to explain
Trying to reach you night and day when I did not know your name
Shall we promise just to talk of it alone, all alone
Why can't the voice that said hello at the moment of first sight
Whisper the words I need to know speak to me that way tonight
Let me hear it travel through the restless sky straight from you
Come to me today
CHORUS
One step closer forward motion
One step nearer our destination
One step closer forward motion
One step nearer our destination
How can I bring myself to sleep till I'm resting by your side
Sharing the secrets hard to keep
When you live them all through the night
And then wake up with the words I'll always want you to say
Come to me today
CHORUS
A lonely man has come undone
Is it wrong to think I understand when you are as close to me
And not much further to go
Let me hear it travel through the restless sky straight from you
Come to me today
CHORUS
Trying to reach you night and day when I did not know your name
Shall we promise just to talk of it alone, all alone
Why can't the voice that said hello at the moment of first sight
Whisper the words I need to know speak to me that way tonight
Let me hear it travel through the restless sky straight from you
Come to me today
CHORUS
One step closer forward motion
One step nearer our destination
One step closer forward motion
One step nearer our destination
How can I bring myself to sleep till I'm resting by your side
Sharing the secrets hard to keep
When you live them all through the night
And then wake up with the words I'll always want you to say
Come to me today
CHORUS
A lonely man has come undone
Is it wrong to think I understand when you are as close to me
And not much further to go
Let me hear it travel through the restless sky straight from you
Come to me today
CHORUS
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