Let me watch by the fire and remember my days
And it may be a trick of the firelight
But the flickering pages that trouble my sight
Is a book I'm afraid to write

It's the book of my days, it's the book of my life
And it's cut like a fruit on the blade of a knife
And it's all there to see as the section reveals
There's some sorrow in every life

If it reads like a puzzle, a wandering maze
Then I won't understand â??til the end of my days
I'm still forced to remember,
Remember the words of my life

There are promises broken and promises kept
Angry words that were spoken, when I should have wept
There's a chapter of secrets, and words to confess
If I lose everything that I possess
There's a chapter on loss and a ghost who won't die
There's a chapter on love where the ink's never dry
There are sentences served in a prison I built out of lies.

Though the pages are numbered
I can't see where they lead
For the end is a mystery no-one can read
In the book of my life

There's a chapter on fathers a chapter on sons
There are pages of conflicts that nobody won
And the battles you lost and your bitter defeat,
There's a page where we fail to meet

There are tales of good fortune that couldn't be planned
There's a chapter on god that I don't understand
There's a promise of Heaven and Hell but I'm damned if I see

Though the pages are numbered
I can't see where they lead
For the end is a mystery no-one can read
In the book of my life

Now the daylight's returning
And if one sentence is true
All these pages are burning
And all that's left is you

Though the pages are numbered
I can't see where they lead
For the end is a mystery no-one can read
In the book of my life


Lyrics submitted by U2takemehigher

The Book of My Life Lyrics as written by Gordon Sumner

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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The Book Of My Life song meanings
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    General Comment

    Along similar literary lines, you've got 'The Book Of Life', which is a track that I was particularly affected by. Its elements of introspection and self-examination encourage the listener - willingly or not - to come up against some of the events of their own life.

    [Sting]: In the period before I started writing this record I was engaged in writing an autobiography about the early part of my life - from my childhood through young adulthood up to the eve of success. I didn't really want to write about success or fame or celebrity or having dinner with Elton and all sorts of celebrity nonsense. I wanted to write about a normal person who will become famous, but what happened to that person to allow this to happen. I'm writing about my parents who were very young when they had me - writing about my parents at the age of 20, 25, from my perspective as a 50-year-old man with a certain amount of wisdom, of life experience. And the process was that I was learning to forgive them for what I hadn't forgiven them before, and to love them again. It did bring up a lot of stuff I probably would have preferred to bury and leave in the sediment. I remember being very depressed at the end of writing that book, because all of this stuff was welling up. So I decided to write this song - 'The Book Of Life'. There's no secrets in the book - there's lots of stuff in here that needs to be examined and it's not all good, but it's good to be reflective. I get very reflective sitting in front of a fire. That's my favorite television program - sitting in front of a fire. The thoughts that come, the memories that come. The song is an attempt to bring that feeling into somebody else's life, to be reflective, to remember.

    sillybunnyon August 29, 2006   Link

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