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."
Oh, how I wish that you were here with me,
To listen to the stupid song I sing
Adjectives and nouns for all to hear,
Form an oxymoron to your ear.
For every comma and every quote,
Of every word of every sentence that I wrote,
From my mouth do these words spew,
Every single syllable for you,
As I string the words together, I
Used to see you should be with me tonight.
So open your thesaurus wide,
So I can put my dictionary inside,
My participle's long been dangling,
Please conjugate me if you can.
Through every vowel and every verb,
And every word of every paragraph and blurb.
From my mouth do these words spew,
Every single syllable for you,
As I string the words together, I
Used to see you should be with me tonight.
I don't wanna be your footnote,
Capitalise me and indent me,
Please add my chapter to your index,
I need you plagiarism, you give great definition,
Dewey Decimal System,
If you don't trust me, check my bibliography, and here me sing:
From my mouth do these words spew,
Every single syllable for you,
As I string the words together, I
Used to see you should be with me tonight.
To listen to the stupid song I sing
Adjectives and nouns for all to hear,
Form an oxymoron to your ear.
For every comma and every quote,
Of every word of every sentence that I wrote,
From my mouth do these words spew,
Every single syllable for you,
As I string the words together, I
Used to see you should be with me tonight.
So open your thesaurus wide,
So I can put my dictionary inside,
My participle's long been dangling,
Please conjugate me if you can.
Through every vowel and every verb,
And every word of every paragraph and blurb.
From my mouth do these words spew,
Every single syllable for you,
As I string the words together, I
Used to see you should be with me tonight.
I don't wanna be your footnote,
Capitalise me and indent me,
Please add my chapter to your index,
I need you plagiarism, you give great definition,
Dewey Decimal System,
If you don't trust me, check my bibliography, and here me sing:
From my mouth do these words spew,
Every single syllable for you,
As I string the words together, I
Used to see you should be with me tonight.
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