A lady stands before an open window
Staring so far away
She can almost feel the southern wind blow
Almost touching her restless day

She turns from her window to me
Sad smile her apology
Sad eyes reaching to the door

Daylight loses to another evening
And still she spares me the word goodbye
And sits alone beside me fighting her feelings
Struggles to speak but in the end can only cry

Suddenly it's so hard to find
The sound of the words to speak her troubled mind
So I'm offering these to her as if to be kind
There's a train everyday leaving either way
There's a world, you know
There's a way to go
And you'll soon be gone, that's just as well
This is my opening farewell

A child's drawings left there on the table
And a woman's silk lying on the floor
And I would keep them here if I were able
Lock her safe behind this open door

But suddenly it's so clear to me
That I'd asked her to see what she may never see
And now my kind words find their way back to me
There's a train everyday leaving either way
There's a world, you know
You got a way's to go
And I'll soon believe, it's just as well
This is my opening farewell


Lyrics submitted by Howard55

My Opening Farewell Lyrics as written by Jackson Browne

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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My Opening Farewell song meanings
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  • +1
    My Interpretation

    I think this is a two layer story. At first, the woman wants to leave the relationship ("sad eyes looking to the door") and sees that it will not last. But he tries to give her comfort and almost defiantly tells her that she can come and go as she pleases ("train every day leaving either way"), he's not holding her there, in fact taunts her ("you'll soon be gone, it's just as well").

    Later, she has won his heart. They have a child together. He now wants to protect her, to lock her and the child safely from the world. However, now she has already gone ("a child's drawings left there on the table and a woman's silk lying on the floor"). Suddenly he recalls his kind (but taunting) words, that she can come and go as she pleases, even though now, his false taunting and bravado are see as just a way of protecting himself. He does not want her to go. Yet "there's a train every day, leaving either way" echos in his mind, and his now broken heart.

    reedsteron January 28, 2015   Link

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