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"
Time passed hard
And the task was the hardest thing she'd ever do
But she forgot
The moment she saw you
So it would seem to be true
When cruel birth debases, we forget
When cruel death debases
We believe it erases all the rest
That precedes
But stand brave, life-liver
Bleeding out your days
In the river of time
Stand brave
Time moves both ways
In the nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life
The nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life
The moment of your greatest joy sustains
Not axe nor hammer
Tumor, tremor
Can take it away, and it remains
It remains
And it pains me to say, I was wrong
Love is not a symptom of time
Time is just a symptom of love
And all the nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life
The nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life
Hardly seen, hardly felt (ahh)
Deep down where your fight is waiting
Down till the light in your eyes is fading
Joy of life
Where I know that you can yield, when it comes down to it
Bow like the field when the wind combs through it
Joy of life
And every little gust that chances through
Will dance in the dust of me and you
With joy of life (joy)
And in our perfect secret-keeping (ahh)
One ear of corn
In silent, reaping
Joy of life
Joy
Again, around, a pause, a sound, a song
A way a lone a last a loved a long (joy)
A cave, a grave, a day, arise, ascend
Areion, Rharian, go free and graze (joy)
Amen
A shore, a tide, unmoored, a sight, abroad
A dawn, unmarked, undone, undarked, a god (joy)
No time, no flock, no chime, no clock, no end
White star, white ship, Nightjar, transmit, transcend (joy)
White star, white ship, Nightjar, transmit, transcend (we go down)
White star, white ship, Nightjar, transmit, transcend
White star, white ship, Nightjar, transmit, trans-
And the task was the hardest thing she'd ever do
But she forgot
The moment she saw you
So it would seem to be true
When cruel birth debases, we forget
When cruel death debases
We believe it erases all the rest
That precedes
But stand brave, life-liver
Bleeding out your days
In the river of time
Stand brave
Time moves both ways
In the nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life
The nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life
The moment of your greatest joy sustains
Not axe nor hammer
Tumor, tremor
Can take it away, and it remains
It remains
And it pains me to say, I was wrong
Love is not a symptom of time
Time is just a symptom of love
And all the nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life
The nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life
Hardly seen, hardly felt (ahh)
Deep down where your fight is waiting
Down till the light in your eyes is fading
Joy of life
Where I know that you can yield, when it comes down to it
Bow like the field when the wind combs through it
Joy of life
And every little gust that chances through
Will dance in the dust of me and you
With joy of life (joy)
And in our perfect secret-keeping (ahh)
One ear of corn
In silent, reaping
Joy of life
Joy
Again, around, a pause, a sound, a song
A way a lone a last a loved a long (joy)
A cave, a grave, a day, arise, ascend
Areion, Rharian, go free and graze (joy)
Amen
A shore, a tide, unmoored, a sight, abroad
A dawn, unmarked, undone, undarked, a god (joy)
No time, no flock, no chime, no clock, no end
White star, white ship, Nightjar, transmit, transcend (joy)
White star, white ship, Nightjar, transmit, transcend (we go down)
White star, white ship, Nightjar, transmit, transcend
White star, white ship, Nightjar, transmit, trans-
Lyrics submitted by meowmeow82
Time, As A Symptom Lyrics as written by Joanna Newsom
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
Came to me at a time of great depression and made me want to reach for happiness again. "Hardly seen, hardly felt, Deep down where your fight is waiting, down 'till the light in your eyes is fading" that line changed my life.