Abandoner

In the Insurgentes book the line is "dreams enter plains, scatter remains". I also think it's "the rope you used to tie your soul", not "your rope you used to tie yourself", but this could be wrong, I'm not English and I can't understand the words he says perfectly. Anyway, very obscure (for me) but beautiful lyrics.

The final line is actually 'Snow starts to glide, I confide.' It's tough to hear. I know I kept missing it! Haha. But if you listen to The Engineers remix of Abandoner of the Insurgentes minisite, you can clearly hear Steven say 'glide.' Thanks for posting the lyrics for us!!

I'm pretty sure it's about a breakup, hence the title. Lines that support this: "The other half is somewhere else" the other half being his lover. "Time freezes all. Flawless eyes" the memory of what she looked like. "The rope you used to tie your soul" the metaphor of a relationship as being tied to another person. "I reach for you, denied your touch" self-explanatory.

The rest is very visual, but I'm not sure of the meaning. It may only have meaning to the person in the song.

Yeah, like I said on my other posts, I was mainly just trying to get at least SOME of these songs on here, so mistakes are heavily likely. Now if I can just figure out how to edit...

I think this song is about Steven Wilson trying to reach someone who has lost their way.

"The other half is somewhere else. A play in the dark, whines like dogs." I don't know about this part, could just be some unsettling imagery. He is in a bad mood and the play in the park whines like dogs, it's annoying him.

"I am restless, I am lost. Time freezes all. Flawless eyes." He feels restless and lost without this person. Time sort of freezes as he pictures this person.

"The rope you used to tie your soul, dreams enter plains, scatter remains." This person tied their soul down with complacency. Their dreams entered plains (flat, boring land, in other words no more dreams) and her soul's remains are scattered.

"I reach for you, denied your touch. Snow starts to glide, I confide." He reaches for her but cannot touch her. I don't why the snow is gliding but he confides all of this with the listener.

It could also be about being dumped. In his book, Steven gave us the lyrics to one line that people have been debating for a while. It's "A plague in the dark whines like dogs." So at least that's cleared up.

[Edit: Updated from Steven Wilson's Limited Edition of One book.]

I think this about the intense emotions, cold feelings and thoughts of someone who just experienced a loved ones suicide. The other being their loved who they felt were their other half. You can no longer see or hear someone who is dead so it is kind of a play in the dark. The speaker here talks about a rope that they used to tie themselves meaning committed suicide. It's abandonment through suicide.

I agree with the suicide idea. The father of a my distant nephew and neice hung himself a year ago. Those kids are lost, as he abandoned them when young. He did not even recognize his own son whom he was asked to bail out of jail just before his death. Steve Wilson creates music like this that crawls up your spine and into your mind. I love the repetitive background and how he builds the frightening noise to a climax. I see this guy swinging from the tree too in my mind and the screwed up lives of these kids. Absolutely frightening thoughts that Steven conjures in his music. Recall the hanging tree in his opening track of Storm Corrosion (the You Tube video).

After listening to a live version and to the two remixes here is what I get. There is only one line I really can't hear properly

The other half is somewhere else A plague in the dark whines like dogs

I am restless - I am lost Time freezes up flawless eyes.

Your rope you used to tie yourself dreams enter planes, scattered remains

I reach for you, but not your touch Snow starts to glide. I confide

It is definitely a "plague" in the dark - not a "play" and it is definitely "yourself" and not "your soul". I'm 95% sure it is "time freezes up" and not "all". The line that starts with "I reach for you..." is the one I can't figure out. I sounds like "benied" - like "denied" with a "b". There aren't enough syllables for "belying". It could be (and in my mind likely is): "but not"

This song is about being cheated on

The other half is somewhere else. (the other half is his partner) A play in the dark, (they are playing in the dark - having sex) Whines like dogs. (the noises they make during sex)

I am restless, I am lost. (wondering about where they are and what they are doing) Time freezes all. Flawless eyes. (time drags on while they are gone, their makeup was flawless when they went out)

Your rope you used to tie yourself, (I think this verse is his imaginings of their actions) dreams into planes, scatter remains.

I reach for you, denied your touch. (self explanatory) Snow starts to blind, I confide. (the avalanche of confrontation begins)