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."
Woman of a thousand years
How are your sons of a time ago?
Do they still admire your silvered ways?
As you go down
To the sea and the gold sand
You may be seen up in the sky
And from the land
Or floating by, a fisherman's day
Flying down from a high
She is gone, and then appears
From the water's edge
Woman of a thousand years
He waits to see you
You may be seen up in the sky
And from the land
Or floating by, a fisherman's day
Flying down from a high
She is gone, and then appears
From the water's edge
He waits to see you
For it has been long since you left him
On his own to wander
Woman of a thousand years
How are your sons of a time ago?
Do they still admire your silvered ways?
As you go down
To the sea and gold sand
How are your sons of a time ago?
Do they still admire your silvered ways?
As you go down
To the sea and the gold sand
You may be seen up in the sky
And from the land
Or floating by, a fisherman's day
Flying down from a high
She is gone, and then appears
From the water's edge
Woman of a thousand years
He waits to see you
You may be seen up in the sky
And from the land
Or floating by, a fisherman's day
Flying down from a high
She is gone, and then appears
From the water's edge
He waits to see you
For it has been long since you left him
On his own to wander
Woman of a thousand years
How are your sons of a time ago?
Do they still admire your silvered ways?
As you go down
To the sea and gold sand
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Somewhere Only We Know
Keane
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And the violence caused such silence
Who are we mistaken
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