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"
When I walk in your shoes
I understand a man confused
There must have been but I don't care
I feel the way your soul does there
Darling they empathize
Looking through your bloodshot eyes
And I know you you're so frustrated
Above we all become what we once hated
Be slight nobody can be that wise
I can't help you if you won't help yourself
No I can't help you if you don't help yourself
You can only get so much from someone yeah
You can get so much from me
I can't help you if you won't help yourself
You've got the degree in philosophy
So you think you're cleverer than me
('Cause you so smart)
But I'm not just some drama queen
(Drama queen)
'Cause it's where you're at not where you've been
So what do you expect from me
(What do you want)
To hold your head above the sea
(Keep you high and dry)
And carry you even though you're bigger
'Cause don't you know you crush my tiny figure
And anyway we're still so young
(Yeah I'm so young)
And this isn't yet the day
I can't help you if you won't help yourself
No I can't help you if you don't help yourself
(You won't help yourself)
You can only get so much from someone yeah
I can't help you if you won't help yourself
You might be twenty-five but in my mind
I see you at sixteen years oh most of the time
And I'm, I'm just a child and you're full grown
And no I'm nothing like I've ever known yeah
You are like nothing that I ever knew
I understand a man confused
There must have been but I don't care
I feel the way your soul does there
Darling they empathize
Looking through your bloodshot eyes
And I know you you're so frustrated
Above we all become what we once hated
Be slight nobody can be that wise
I can't help you if you won't help yourself
No I can't help you if you don't help yourself
You can only get so much from someone yeah
You can get so much from me
I can't help you if you won't help yourself
You've got the degree in philosophy
So you think you're cleverer than me
('Cause you so smart)
But I'm not just some drama queen
(Drama queen)
'Cause it's where you're at not where you've been
So what do you expect from me
(What do you want)
To hold your head above the sea
(Keep you high and dry)
And carry you even though you're bigger
'Cause don't you know you crush my tiny figure
And anyway we're still so young
(Yeah I'm so young)
And this isn't yet the day
I can't help you if you won't help yourself
No I can't help you if you don't help yourself
(You won't help yourself)
You can only get so much from someone yeah
I can't help you if you won't help yourself
You might be twenty-five but in my mind
I see you at sixteen years oh most of the time
And I'm, I'm just a child and you're full grown
And no I'm nothing like I've ever known yeah
You are like nothing that I ever knew
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Isn't it "but we all become what we once hated"???