For some reason, I think the song is purely metaphorical. He (Tuomas) isn't talking about someone who's actually dying, he's talking about himself.
"The child" refers to his innocence. "The faith" refers to a naive belief that the world is purely good.
The first verse is saying that he doesn't want to see another day, "black rose born" could mean another cruelty, the "deathbed slowly covered with snow" could mean that someone who was good and has died is being forgotten.
"Angels, they fell first, but I'm still here" means that the people he thought were good left, whether by death or a loss of illusion, but he's still there, "alone" while death is "drawing near".
"Wounded is the deer..." could be saying that those who are hurt emotionally are the quickest to flee from 'life'. The reference to his "wound" places him in that category. "Turn out the lights and let me pull the plug" is his plea that people around him ignore him and allow him to wither away in peace.
"Mandylion without a face" refers to the cloth with the image of Christ, but is, again, a metaphor. The cloth is meaningless without the face, he feels he is meaningless without his innocence. "Deathwish without a prayer" is honestly a bit confusing, perhaps he wants death but doesn't feel 'worthy' to pray for it. "End of hope, End of love, End of time, The rest is silence" is saying that once you lose hope, you lose love, without love, there isn't a point to life, 'time' has run out, once time runs out, every thing else is silence.
The section "This is the birth of all hope, To have what I once had, This life unforgiven, It will end with birth" is hopeful. It's saying that he is regaining hope by striving to regain innocence and that this pathetic period will end with the "birth" or, perhaps more appropriately, the 'rebirth' of his inner child or innocence.
I don't know, I'm just going off of what I get from it as well as a few statements that Tuomas was hugely depressed during this period, that some of the lyrics come directly from his diary or his life, and that the band was very, very concerned about him when they first read over the lyrics for the album.
For some reason, I think the song is purely metaphorical. He (Tuomas) isn't talking about someone who's actually dying, he's talking about himself.
"The child" refers to his innocence. "The faith" refers to a naive belief that the world is purely good.
The first verse is saying that he doesn't want to see another day, "black rose born" could mean another cruelty, the "deathbed slowly covered with snow" could mean that someone who was good and has died is being forgotten.
"Angels, they fell first, but I'm still here" means that the people he thought were good left, whether by death or a loss of illusion, but he's still there, "alone" while death is "drawing near".
"Wounded is the deer..." could be saying that those who are hurt emotionally are the quickest to flee from 'life'. The reference to his "wound" places him in that category. "Turn out the lights and let me pull the plug" is his plea that people around him ignore him and allow him to wither away in peace.
"Mandylion without a face" refers to the cloth with the image of Christ, but is, again, a metaphor. The cloth is meaningless without the face, he feels he is meaningless without his innocence. "Deathwish without a prayer" is honestly a bit confusing, perhaps he wants death but doesn't feel 'worthy' to pray for it. "End of hope, End of love, End of time, The rest is silence" is saying that once you lose hope, you lose love, without love, there isn't a point to life, 'time' has run out, once time runs out, every thing else is silence.
The section "This is the birth of all hope, To have what I once had, This life unforgiven, It will end with birth" is hopeful. It's saying that he is regaining hope by striving to regain innocence and that this pathetic period will end with the "birth" or, perhaps more appropriately, the 'rebirth' of his inner child or innocence.
I don't know, I'm just going off of what I get from it as well as a few statements that Tuomas was hugely depressed during this period, that some of the lyrics come directly from his diary or his life, and that the band was very, very concerned about him when they first read over the lyrics for the album.