If Only Tonight We Could Sleep

well its a song of irony.. look at the title: if only tonight we could sleep people usually do sleep at night.. so even when robert smith says a "deathless spell" he very well may be talking about death. its not that he necessarily wants to experience the death.. a deathless spell implies death without the dying. just an eternal sleep.
so perhaps it is, in fact, if only tonight we could sleep... forever.

thus supporting the use of death as a means of making love eternal.

I think there's nothing to support the theory that this song is about wanting to die with someone and movitz's and bloodflowers' theories on the subject are just being overly emo. In fact if you actually read the lyrics you'll see that Robert specifically says a lot of stuff that's just the opposite such as the words "a DEATHLESS spell" or in the lines "slide into deep black waters" which would imply drowning under normal circumstances, however he adds the lines "and breathe . . . and breathe". Honestly this song is filled with nothing more but some of the most beautiful analogies for sleep and nothing more.

I always picture this song as two lovers spending the night with each other and no wanting to go to sleep and have to wake p in the morning and leave each others sides again.

To really do this song justice, you need to view this song on the TRILOGY DVD. The song is recorded extremely well on there and the guitar solo by RS at the beginning is just un freaking believable! You think that Jimmy Hendrix was playing right in front of your eyes! Just pure dark cure amazing!

A happy death with the one you love -Amanda

he clearly mentions a "deathless" spell. this song is not about death, don't relate it to a natural disaster. it would be arrogant of me to assume i know exactly what its meaning is... maybe it's as simple as wishing time with a loved one wouldn't run out.

Robert said himself this song is about “a slow and happy death” in the Cure news issue 13

This song may be talking about a couple committing suicide, like in "The Lovecats." This talks about two people (possibly more) who yearn to "sleep," a term which, in this case, means die. Then the song lyrics seem to contradict this message and describe how spiritual and pleasant it will be, and then the song seems to not be talking about death at all. I believe this could mean that two people desperately want to be together forever, so they kill themselves so they may be together in the afterlife for eternity. Unlike "The Lovecats," where suicide seemingly is condemned as being 'dumb,' this song seems strangely tranquil and hopeful. This song could be completely ironic, which is how I choose to interpret it, and might be making fun of the extremes people will go to for love. This is only my interpretation, though, so you might interpret it otherwise.

Pure poetry. When you find someone too perfect, and this someone only stays perfect for the night, well what do you do? You want to commit suicide with him/her to become endless. Drowning in deep black water, and drowning in each other. I find this tune hauntingly beautiful. The electric guitar-part is wonderful.

I was just relating this song to the Southeast Asian Tsunami. The Survivors must really be feeling this way. Their loved ones are dead and they wish they could just drift away into death ... so they can join them in death.

It's about the death as a way how to make the love eternal.