This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
You returned the book unfinished about a girl with raven hair
And a gentleman, her lover, who presented her a mare
Which she rode across the country, leaving him to tend the land
Which had turned to drier quarter when it met his lonely hands
No more weeds left in your garden
No more green and no more stone
No more guilty left to pardon
Only evil of your own
Blind man found a baby, and the virgin kissed a man
From the farmland proven fertile since the rain returned again
But you returned the book unfinished to your friend around the bend
Who had scribed a closing passage but you never reached the end
No more sparrows in your garden
Since you lost your telephone
No more guilty left to pardon
On your hilltop all alone
And a gentleman, her lover, who presented her a mare
Which she rode across the country, leaving him to tend the land
Which had turned to drier quarter when it met his lonely hands
No more weeds left in your garden
No more green and no more stone
No more guilty left to pardon
Only evil of your own
Blind man found a baby, and the virgin kissed a man
From the farmland proven fertile since the rain returned again
But you returned the book unfinished to your friend around the bend
Who had scribed a closing passage but you never reached the end
No more sparrows in your garden
Since you lost your telephone
No more guilty left to pardon
On your hilltop all alone
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher
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a story (book unfinished) about a beautiful, materialistic girl (raven hair), who leaves a guy because he filled her greed and ego (presented a mare, leaving him to tend the land). He becomes depressed and gives up on everything (Drier quarter when it met his lonely hands). He no longer has to apologize for her (No more guilty left to pardon) and is left with his own misery (evil).
then it starts to talk about someone else, someone who sought love and innocence (virgin), not beauty (Blind man), and happiness was restored (From the farmland proven fertile since the rain returned again). However, since this guy has given up (But you returned the book unfinished to your friend around the bend), he'll never know of better. there is also the noticeable transition at the end from a nuisance (weeds) to something that helps nurture (sparrow).
i think the garden is a metaphor for happiness. turns out this wasn't my situation at all but i enjoyed trying to interpret it.