No Tears

I can't believe this doesn't have more comments! It's such a beautiful song!

Anyway, I think it is clearly about someone dying young. The line "All the things that could have been, well I've been everything I wanna be, so no tears for me" suggests that the person is young and had so much more living to do. However it's written to point out that even if the person's life was short, it was meaningful and he accomplished everything he wanted to, and therefore no one should cry or feel sorry for him.

For me, it's a conversation between two soldiers - and one of them is about to die. Let's call them A and B, B being the one who's dying.

B is extremely religious. He believes in God and just feels that he's right. A is an

ordinary soldier, a friend, but he doesn't believe or love God. For A, God makes no

difference or doesn't even exist.

B is deeply wounded and about to die. Probably, he sacrificed himself, in order to

save A. A is calling him "crazy" and doesn't understand his sacrifice. So, with that

in mind, let's talk about the lyrics:

"Don't I know it? Nobody has to say"

A is probably calling B stupid for being such a nice person, because he sacrificed

himself for someone else. And B answers, telling A that he knows that, but he's ok

just like that.

"I've been lucky. Guess I was born that way"

B tells A something about him. For such a gentle soul, he could get that far in the

war. So he's been lucky, he could be one of the first deads.

"I thank my father, His absence has made me strong"

B doesn't know his father, or at least he was left with his mother when he was a

child. I don't think his father is actually dead, it sounds to me like they were

abandoned.

"And I love my mother But she had troubles with God"

He loves his mother, she raised him, but she didn't believe in God. Or were angry with

God. Or she thought it could be a waste of time believing in such a thing.

"For the life that you've led You've had angels in your head Did you hear them singing in the end"

A still cannot believe that B is dying. He was a nice and pure soul. A is angry

because he couldn't do a thing to save his friend, B. So he says that B was so

positive and what the fuck he thought at that moment? He believed in angels, so A

asked angrily if B heard them singing in the end/air?.

"All the things that you've seen All the things that could have been"

This is still A telling B that he could've been so much, he deserved a better life

than that.

"Well I've been everything I want to be So no tears, no tears for me"

B tells A that he had been everything he wanted to be. B had no regrets, he made that

for loving his comrades.

"Yeah, I've bathed in sunshine But cherished the fading light And I heard my heartbeat faulter On a winter's night I loved a woman She didn't hear my prayers So Lord, oh Lord, I'm yours"

B tells A some of his memories (people says that when we're about to die, we can see

our life right before our eyes) and tells that he loved deeply a woman, but she didn't

believed in God neither, or didn't respect his beliefs. So he has no regrets, he's

asking God to take him away, finally.

"Because someone somewhere's going home tonight Try to understand the sacrifice So save your tears for those left behind"

At this point, A's crying. B asks him to not cry, because there's someone, somewhere

(maybe his mother or a relative) who can't understand why B sacrificed himself for the

others. So B's asks A to save all his tears for those who lived (the other soldiers

and their relatives), because B was kinda happy, he would finally reach God. Maybe,

for the first time, B was entirely happy.

This is about a soldier dying and having no regret. I think Blunt wrote it seeing that he was in a tank the english army.

I think, especially the last lines, are about people being alone ("someone somewhere's going home tonight") ....("for those left behind ")

Those "left behind" try to understand the world and its meaning and why their alone ("Trying to understand the sacrifice ")

And i think in general its about accepting the things that happened to you (especially the bad things)

i think james was talking about what he has seen in life, what he has been able to achieve and what he has not been able to achieve, and so he says that no one should cry for him when he dies.

I think the songwriter was talking to himself trying to be more reasonable than he used to do. I mean by crying and feeling down even if he's a successful person and this for what he has left behind, for the person he loved and didn't love him in return, for the absence of his father, and the lack of hope of the mother (she had troubles with God) due to the absence of the father and the responsibility of the son, (actually keeping faith is keeping hope) .. So, he's trying to assume his success, to be aware of it, to appropriate it, what he has done, the successful and strong person he becomes .. due in some way to his hurts due "to the way he was born" "so he's lucky". So, definitely, it's about a reborn and not dying as many consider it. Sometimes, we might die many times in our lives to reborn anew again after the struggles and the disappointments, and all the hurts we face. Here the songwriter is showing the other side to himself rather than the negative side that he used to see cherishing the fading light even if he baths in sunlight. So, it's about a reborn!