Cumbersome

arrow and a cross hes talking about the gender symbols a cirlce with an arrow and a circle with a cross

I have totally been in the place that this song describes. I was with a girl for six years before we broke up, and the last year we were together, I'd lost my job, had to move in with her, was really depressed, gained some weight...all while she was going to medical school. Her life was going up, mine was going down. She was annoyed with me all the time, I felt like a loser....felt cumbersome.

I think this song is just about the awareness that you've become kind of a burden on someone, or just the world in general, and there isn't really anything you can do to change that at the moment.

"Resurrect those bridges with an ancient glance/But my old stone face can't seem to break her down" - I think this line relates to that feeling where you wish you could just turn back the clock, even for a day, and have the relationship that you used to have. Be able to affect her the way you used to when you look at her...but it doesn't work. You're just a tired face to her and nothing you do will work.

I've been there, done that, glad I moved on finally!

Great song, great identification of an emotion.

In my opinion, he feels like he is a burden to his significant other. That's pretty much what the word cumberseome means...heavy or burdensome.

He has done some things in the past that caused her great pain, and they can't seem to get through it. Even though they may not talk about it, the tension and mistrust is always there.

When he says "She calls me Goliath and I wear the David mask", I think he's saying that she still sees the things he's done wrong, despite the fact that he's trying to change for the better. This is also referenced in the "She remembers bridges, burns them to the ground" part.

She lives in fear of him hurting her again, which is how she justifies holding onto the past.

She loves him, but yet she distances herself from him as a protective mechanism.

As far as the arrow and the cross, I think the arrow refers to war and the cross referes to reconciliation. Once again, he's saying they have tried to reconcile (the cross) but the war (the arrow) remains.

He feels bad for what he's done, and ultimately like he doesn't deserve her. He feels ilke walking away is the only answer, even though it causes him great pain and turmoil.

I don't think that he's speaking so much of balance in terms of social equality, but more in terms of "a stalemate". He describes men and women as "two worlds". I think this is hearkening back to the metaphor of Mars and Venus, and being unable to understand each other.

Additionally, he's talking about wanting her more even as she wants him less, which seems to me a very puerile (but common) thing that people do: they abuse or take for granted what they have and only begin to truly desire it once it is taken away from them.

Overall, he is losing the affections of his mate and doesn't understand her enough to get them back. It sucks, but he probably painted himself into that corner.

I don't see anything relating to weight gain, but I suppose that everyone interprets lyrics differently.

Also, cumbersome doesn't mean "big", it means "unwieldy". A 50-pound brick of lead isn't necessarily large, but it's hard to carry because it weighs so much. A card table might only weight 15 pounds, but it has swinging legs and is quite broad. Both of these are unwieldy and cumbersome.

I think that when he says "life is cumbersome", he is referring to the relationship and the various hoops they both must jump through, the dances and lies and all the other clap-trap that have become a part of it. Therefore, it isn't the pure thing that it began as, and it has become cumbersome.

Mycohl has it, about the relationship being a stalemate and that a guy is losing his girl, he doesn't know how to get her back even though he probably led the relationship get to that point. I also agree that cumbersome (burdensome) should mean heavy, the bad relationship has become burdensome (or a heavy load) on the shoulders of both the guy and the girl. I've seen weight (meaning negative, excess baggage)used in alot of grunge and post-grunge songs as a common theme, sometimes it means guilt too. I like the way cumbersome is used in this song.

this song had a lot of meaning in my life as well, i got my girlfriend pregnant only to have her break up with me, i became so depressed and started abusing drugs only to have all my friends and family start to look down on me heavily for it and at the same time could not get a job with my education. i was cumbersome to my world... i overcame and quit abusing, got my girl back, and got a job. i can honestly say this song helped me through that time more than anything else bc i could relate so much.

it's tough when you know the relationship is too heavy to carry, but you don't want to make that leap.

Haven't listened to this song for... I don't even want to think about how long it's been.

Where he says "I'd like to believe this nervousness will pass" makes me think of one of those relationships, where you basically feel like the other person is staying with you out of obligation, and you feel that tension in their tone, the brittleness of their mood. The feeling that every little thing you do or say is another nail in the coffin. The nervousness like they're just looking for a way out, a reason to dump you.

You hope the nervousness will pass. You hope it's just a bad mood, or a rough patch in life. Sometimes it is, and things getter... But sometimes... well, the rest of the song has that down too :(

To me this song has lots of meaning because this was the first song by 7Mary3 that my boyfriend ever played for me. So I love them.