Offspring are Blank

He was made to love her, She was made to love him.

That's what I'm hearing...

seems to relate to the love of Adam and Eve and how far we've strayed from that definition. we, the living, the offspring, love the idea of Adam and Eve, but are blank in the absence of understanding such love.

There was a single one Then there were ten With ten made a hundred And a hundred million

You came and spoke to me I saw your face Your words were like raindrops From a storm in a vase

Each generation different

He was made to love her She was made to love him And their offspring love them

And in the marriage of eagle and snake The parents are fertile But their offspring is blank

The fire rages and all through the night The flame is contagious But the heat feels all right

Can't recognize our poverty

He was made to love her She was made to love him And their offspring love them

There is a darkness I feel coming down And shadows that lengthen from the sky to the ground

And a silence that can swallow sound

He was made to love her She was made to love him And their offspring love them

He was made to love her She was made to love him And their offspring love both of them

This song refers to the marriage of an eagle and snake. Nietzsche's Zarathustra had an eagle and a snake as companions. The back cover of Bitte Orca has a picture of Nietzsche. Just saying.

I can help but think this is about environmentalism, specifically the intergenerational problem. The general idea is that as we pollute more and more, we'll essentially have a desolate, nearly uninhabitable earth for future generations. With this background...

"There was a single one..." = We're populating and populating to the point of overpopulation, a huge factor of pollution.

"...But their offspring love them" = As humans, we have every right and drive to love each other and reproduce, and we deserve to have children as well, who love them back.

"Marriage of eagle and snake...offpsring is blank" = 'Eagle and snake' could be a historical nod or some sort of folk lore, but I just take it to be stylistic and add it to the dramatic foreboding sort of vibe of the song. Anyway, the parents are fertile and all is well, but their offspring will be moot if there is no earth to inhabit.

"Fire rages on...heat feels alright" = We're okay or at least blissfully unaware of the destruction we're doomed to cause. Which segues nicely into...

"can't recognize our poverty"

"Darkness...silence that can swallow sound" = Another apocalyptic picture of reality, presumably as a means of our pollution.

I also think that the form of the lyrics are telling. It goes from identification of life and fertility to merely mentioning a sort of 'erased' reality. In that sense, it also drives the point home.

All in all, I take it to be 'we're destroying ourselves,' but we're so conflicted by the very clear right to love and reproduction that we undoubtedly have.

Sorry for the mistakes guys, I've tried to submit some corrections to no avail on some other tracks :/

As far as I can tell, this is about a relationship that shouldn't have worked, but has gone on to thrive and flourish. Powerful, and also kind of romantic.