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Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word Lyrics
Seems like only yesterday
I left my mind behind
Down in the Gypsy Cafe
With a friend of a friend of mine
She sat with a baby heavy on her knee
Yet spoke of life most free from slavery
With eyes that showed no trace of misery
A phrase in connection first with she I heard
That love is just a four-letter word
Outside a rambling store-front window
Cats meowed to the break of day
Me, I kept my mouth shut, too
To you I had no words to say
My experience was limited and underfed
You were talking while I hid
To the one who was the father of your kid
You probably didn't think I did, but I heard
You say that love is just a four-letter word
I said goodbye unnoticed
Pushed towards things in my own games
Drifting in and out of lifetimes
Unmentionable by name
Searching for my double, looking for
Complete evaporation to the core
Though I tried and failed at finding any door
I must have thought that there was nothing more
Absurd than that love is just a four-letter word
Though I never knew just what you meant
When you were speaking to your man
I can only think in terms of me
And now I understand
After waking enough times to think I see
The Holy Kiss that's supposed to last eternity
Blow up in smoke, its destiny
Falls on strangers, travels free
Yes, I know now, traps are only set by me
And I do not really need to be
Assured that love is just a four-letter word
I left my mind behind
Down in the Gypsy Cafe
With a friend of a friend of mine
She sat with a baby heavy on her knee
Yet spoke of life most free from slavery
With eyes that showed no trace of misery
A phrase in connection first with she I heard
That love is just a four-letter word
Outside a rambling store-front window
Cats meowed to the break of day
Me, I kept my mouth shut, too
To you I had no words to say
My experience was limited and underfed
You were talking while I hid
To the one who was the father of your kid
You probably didn't think I did, but I heard
You say that love is just a four-letter word
I said goodbye unnoticed
Pushed towards things in my own games
Drifting in and out of lifetimes
Unmentionable by name
Searching for my double, looking for
Complete evaporation to the core
Though I tried and failed at finding any door
I must have thought that there was nothing more
Absurd than that love is just a four-letter word
Though I never knew just what you meant
When you were speaking to your man
I can only think in terms of me
And now I understand
After waking enough times to think I see
The Holy Kiss that's supposed to last eternity
Blow up in smoke, its destiny
Falls on strangers, travels free
Yes, I know now, traps are only set by me
And I do not really need to be
Assured that love is just a four-letter word
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interesting to note that Dylan wrote the song, and Joan Baez wrote the last 2 verses.
do you mean from the line "I said goodbye unnoticed"?
strange it is to be beside you many years the tables turned you’d probably not believe me if i told you all i’ve learned and it is very very weird indeed to hear words like forever fleets ship of ships run through my mind i cannot cheat it’s like looking into a stranger’s face complete i cannot say nothing to you but repeat what i heard that love is just a four letter word
It's about someone who comes to understand the difference between holy love and mortal love. One is flawed and undependable. The other isn't. Early in life, we confuse the two and get all bummed out about it when life doesn't go our way. We say God doesn't exist or doesn't love us. It's not true. We set a trap by believing the world would act the way God does, or that it would match up with our conceptions of love. We meet someone and the whole rush of divine love comes back! This time, it's all conflated with that person! Then, when that doesn't work out either, we're in the dumps again. This time thinking our world is in the crapper because that person left. But, again, we set a trap. Our experience of love needn't be dependent on the world. It needn't be dependent upon concepts or another persons behavior or anything. We could "leave our mind behind" and just live with open hearts. Be like children again. Holy love is the "kiss that supposed to last eternity"... but it doesn't because it obeys its own will and is given freely or "befalls on strangers, travels free." It's given, not taken. But traps are only set by me! God doesn't stop loving us, we stop feeling his love because we put all these conditions on it. We say, "I wouldn't suffer, if God loved me." But, eventually, you grow up and realize that love is just a four letter word. Love is what you make it. It's not a concept or a condition. It's an action. Kind of an annoying thing to hear from your ex-boyfriend, though. haha Poor Joan. I think Bob really did a number on her. ;)
[Edit: thought of more to say]