In a Manner of Speaking

i think this song is about how overrated speaking and expressing how you feel about someone verbally can be. if you're fully in love with someone, that love swallows you. it's there 24/7/365 and you know that and it's comforting. therefore, you don't always have to go into this explicit verbal detail to express it. One of the reasons I think that is because of this line:

'I don't understand how love in silence becomes reprimand. But the way that I feel about you is beyond words'

what i think that means is that she doesn't understand how silence can so often be misinterpreted as a lack of feelings for the partner or anger towards the partner. sometimes when your bf or gf is silent, you think that he/she doesn't love you anymore or is perhaps angry at you when the reality is that they love you more than ever, but that love is 'beyond words' and that's why they're silent.

when she says 'give me the words that tell me nothing... give me the words that tell me everything', what she really means is give her silence because silence says nothing and everything all at the same time.

i think she's in love with that guy but he doesn't really care for her, he tells her he loves her but he does not really mean it and she knows it but she still wants to hear it from him because it lets her live in some kind of fantasy... or maybe it's just me? maybe everyone is truly-madly-deeply in love and i'm just the pessimistic one... well, whatever!

Past form for to tell in this case is questioning if interactions (like talking) of addressing and addressed person still happen, suspecting they do not ("...That I could never forget the way You >told< me everything by saying nothing"). Yet verses after, the addressing person switches back to present ("...But the way that i feel about you..."). Assuming the feelings of the addressing person towards the addressed person still exist even though their relationship - of whatever kind - has ended.

The addressed person has simply said all the beautiful things - can also be put as "sweet-talking" - never giving them meaning (which opens one layer of the line: "You told me everything by saying nothing") by any relevant nor related actions ("In a manner of speaking Semantics won't do...").

The addressing person is aware of her feelings being wasted therefore bittersweetly concludes as the consequence to distance her/himself by mirroring the addressed persons behaviour and "manner" for typical self-protecting reasons (And the way that we feel Might have to be sacrified So in a manner of speaking I just want to say That just like you I should find a way To tell you everything By saying nothing).

• all rhetorically happening in her/his mind.

The addressing person is also aware that she/he cannot switch off love that easily so she/he still in some way ironically craves for the only thing she/he could get from the addressed person: words that say and with no feelings mean nothing and yet mean or meant everything to her/him praying down the meaningless because rhetorical words of her desperation (O give me the words Give me the words That tell me nothing O give me the words Give me the words Give me the words).

Since this site is about WHAT THIS SONG MEANS TO ME... I think she's so in love with him and he doesn't have to say anything to her to show his love back. --> "I could never forget the way You told me everything By saying nothing" and "But the way that I feel about you Is beyond words"

But maybe sometimes she would still like to hear SOMETHING from him that lets her know how much he's in love with her, too. --> "Oh give me the words. Give me the words That tell me everything"

That's MY take on it. This is such a beautiful song though...

i can't think about the meaning right now, i've just "found" this song and i'm in love with it. it's a truly beautiful one.

I couldn't agree more , pippilotta - there doesn't always need to be words spoken in order to feel comfortable.

A lot of people are under the illusion that when people who are together and in silence are distant or cold or perhaps uninterested in each other when they may in fact just completely understand one another and the bond just transcends beyond words.

I find it interesting how the interpretation of this song is very different from the Martin Gore or Tuxedomoon versions, which are both sung by males. Most people interpreted as a man in love with a woman but having a difficult time expressing his love with words. Meanwhile, people interpret the Nouvelle Vague version as a one-sided relationship in which the singer is in a relationship with a man who doesn't love her as much as she loves him and he struggles to say words of love.

beautiful.

so true pippilotta, i totally agree with you. Silence can sometimes say what words can't.

i think that silence is the only thing she gets from the person she loves. as she is in love with him, it is enough for her to interpret it the way she wants - "That I could never forget the way You told me everything By saying nothing "

And then she explains why she keeps silent as well, and excuses herself - "I don't understand How love in silence becomes reprimand But the way that I feel about you Is beyond words "

"I just want to say That like you I should find a way To tell you everything By saying nothing "

And she hopes he would actually speak up (first), because she can't, she loves him too much