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In stillness
A silent weight
Pausing as the minutes each evaporate
A desire
To leave a scar
To raise a voice from within the dark
Decaying
Cascading
Existence falls apart
Around me
Within me
So I must leave my mark
CHORUS
This is a document
To prove that I was here
This is a document
To prove I was at all
And when my voice ceases to be
Will the echo still ring loudly?
And when there's nothing left of me
Will my memory still go on?
A flicker
Transitory state
An echo of an instance that burns a way
A moment
A shard of time
A solitary thread that threatens to unwind
Decaying
Cascading
Existence falls apart
Around me
Within me
So I must leave my mark
(CH)
Distant
An approaching age
When this document falls beneath another's gaze
Too late
We have lost the dawn
The signal's loud and clear, but the transmitter's gone
Decaying
Cascading
Existence falls apart
Around me
Within me
So I must leave my mark
(CHx2)
A silent weight
Pausing as the minutes each evaporate
To leave a scar
To raise a voice from within the dark
Cascading
Existence falls apart
Around me
Within me
So I must leave my mark
This is a document
To prove that I was here
This is a document
To prove I was at all
And when my voice ceases to be
Will the echo still ring loudly?
And when there's nothing left of me
Will my memory still go on?
Transitory state
An echo of an instance that burns a way
A shard of time
A solitary thread that threatens to unwind
Cascading
Existence falls apart
Around me
Within me
So I must leave my mark
An approaching age
When this document falls beneath another's gaze
We have lost the dawn
The signal's loud and clear, but the transmitter's gone
Cascading
Existence falls apart
Around me
Within me
So I must leave my mark
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
God I love this song. Reminds me of the last night my love and I spent together. We went out dancing and drinking, and danced to this song - I never saw him again after that night, and I'll always love him.
To me, this song evokes self-injury, like cutting -- the chaos before, the moment of calm and stillness during, the resulting scars and marks a reminder....
things just falling apart. your entire life goes pear, and in sets in the depression, feeling worthless, like you are insignificant, and noone actually cares enough to remember you, so you must leave something for them to remember that you did exist, that way they wont forget me like they will otherwise.
many people think that this is a song about his music -- that the "document" is the song itself, which will live on even after he dies. Sounds like a good meaning to me!
I don't know I saw this as more of a "I want to be different from all your past relationships" and rather than take away the scars of older relationships it's far easier to make a newer and bigger one. I don't know....
again, I believe he's saying we're fucked, and wishes to be remembered through music
Place this song in the context of the rest of the Defiance album.
You might see this song as playing at answer to the question: "Why?"
Why get back up after the world knocks you to the ground? What is it all for? Will anyone remember you? Will you have any lasting significance?
That drive to make an impression on the world, in very clear and real ways. Ways that will give you hope, hopefully, to keep going at it.
To me the song is about leaving a legacy so that the protagonist can prove that he has worth. The whole feel of the song seems to have a rallying quality that is about making a stand when you are feeling at your lowest and making something of yourself. To leave a kind of "scar" on history that is there for all future generations to see.
It kind of questions the fragility of human existance and also its potential futility. Its like realising that in comparrison to the universe as a whole, the human race has occupied such an infintessimal portion of time, and could disappear in a heartbeat. No-one having ever known we were here.
The realisation of this for the protagonist has given him drive and so willed him to strive.
In this way i think it is quite an uplifting song.