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."
Gone gone childhood days
Gone in so many ways
All that I have said and done
The castles we have overcome
At last you have found a friend
The sweetest voice will never end
And it echoes down the mountainside
People live and people die
Friendly face will always be
Wrapped up in my childhood days
Old dogs and worn out shoes
Even children sing the blues
How we must endure it all
To save God's creatures great and small
All my world is there and then
The voices come to me again
And they echo down the mountainside
People live and people die
I still can see my Daddy's face, Oh Lord
This is a lonely place
Fast train , train too slow
Maybe you got no place to go
Let me set your spirit free
It's crazy but you comfort me
We share together what we found
The force of love is all around
And it echoes down the mountainside
Little bit of soul we hide
Find us lost without a trace
Oh Lord
This is a lonely place
Gone gone childhood days
Gone in so many ways
In all my children you can see
What old aquaintance means to me
Drean is mine and here it stays
All wrapped up in my childhood days
And it echoes down the mountainside
People live and people die
Tho I love you for always
I lost you in my childhood days
Gone in so many ways
All that I have said and done
The castles we have overcome
At last you have found a friend
The sweetest voice will never end
And it echoes down the mountainside
People live and people die
Friendly face will always be
Wrapped up in my childhood days
Old dogs and worn out shoes
Even children sing the blues
How we must endure it all
To save God's creatures great and small
All my world is there and then
The voices come to me again
And they echo down the mountainside
People live and people die
I still can see my Daddy's face, Oh Lord
This is a lonely place
Fast train , train too slow
Maybe you got no place to go
Let me set your spirit free
It's crazy but you comfort me
We share together what we found
The force of love is all around
And it echoes down the mountainside
Little bit of soul we hide
Find us lost without a trace
Oh Lord
This is a lonely place
Gone gone childhood days
Gone in so many ways
In all my children you can see
What old aquaintance means to me
Drean is mine and here it stays
All wrapped up in my childhood days
And it echoes down the mountainside
People live and people die
Tho I love you for always
I lost you in my childhood days
Lyrics submitted by nabzouk
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