River of Sorrow Lyrics
It passes by my window
And late at night
All dolled up like Christ
I walk the water
Between the piers
Oh
River of sorrow
River of time, river
River of sorrow
Don't swallow this time
Long ago she was pulled from the mire
And no precious liar or well-wisher
Can return the love that was stolen
River of sorrow
River of time, river
River of sorrow
Don't swallow this time
At the end of the dark passageway
Take me wit you towads this light
Into the darkness passing over the faces in the river
Hear me!
I'm whispering in your ear!
River of sorrow
Oh, river of time
River of sorrow
Don't swallow this time
River of sorrow
Oh, river of time
River of sorrow
Don't swallow this time
I wonder if it should be "precious lyre" and not "precious liar". If the song is referencing Greek mythology (personally, I thought of the river styx), then lyre makes sense, especially considering Orpheus.
I also have to add that this song is gorgeous. After the first time I heard it, I couldn't stop listening to it.
The river Acheron was, in ancient Greece, the River of Sorrows, one of the five rivers connected to the realm of the dead. I love this song.
The song is written for Marsha P Johnson who was an African American transgender activist and who died in 1992. The name Antony & the Johnsons is also an homage to her.
I actually thought of the book "Heart of Darkness", when I heard this song.
In 1992, the body of Marsha P. Johnson, a famous drag queen and gay rights activist, was found in the Hudson River in New York, off the West Village Piers. Police ruled it as a suicide, though friends and relatives insisted Marsha had not been suicidal, and several witnesses claimed that she had been earlier harassed near the sight of her death. Any attempts to persuade police to further investigate her death were unsuccessful.