I may be looking at this with the wrong eyes (listening with the wrong ears*) because I heard this song after their new album, Endless forms most beautiful. In that album there are many parts that seem to be disparaging religion. A quote by richard dawkins, a staunch ("militant") atheist, a quote by Darwin, who is often (wrongly, imho) put into a camp of naturalism, and an entire song seemingly disparaging religion. If Tuomas and Marco have been finding themselves more secular since Imaginarium, this song seems to be rejecting religion in many forms for truth. The crow could represent the devil, hedonism, or other proud religions. the owl could represent secular humanism, or pure rationalism, and the dove could represent Christianity.
The rejection of what the various religions have to offer in exchange for "truth" and innocence could demonstrate the start of a journey towards a religion of the self, where what they have is enough for them, and they don't need to reach into religions to find it, even though they find things appealing in the religions, because they value the truth over what religion can do for them.
"don't give me faith" seems to support this as well..
maybe the swan "mirrored" in the river refers to the self, such that the story teller wouldn't need anything they could give because the story teller has everything that the swan could give, since it represents herself.
Buuuuuuut maybe I totally read into it in ways the author didn't mean me to.
@benjaminyq I agree with you, actually. This was exactly what came to mind when I first heard the lyrics of this song. I tried to discard the idea so I could enjoy the song, and tried coming up with a few other meanings this song could bring. But in the end, I believe your interpretation to be correct.
@benjaminyq I agree with you, actually. This was exactly what came to mind when I first heard the lyrics of this song. I tried to discard the idea so I could enjoy the song, and tried coming up with a few other meanings this song could bring. But in the end, I believe your interpretation to be correct.
I may be looking at this with the wrong eyes (listening with the wrong ears*) because I heard this song after their new album, Endless forms most beautiful. In that album there are many parts that seem to be disparaging religion. A quote by richard dawkins, a staunch ("militant") atheist, a quote by Darwin, who is often (wrongly, imho) put into a camp of naturalism, and an entire song seemingly disparaging religion. If Tuomas and Marco have been finding themselves more secular since Imaginarium, this song seems to be rejecting religion in many forms for truth. The crow could represent the devil, hedonism, or other proud religions. the owl could represent secular humanism, or pure rationalism, and the dove could represent Christianity.
The rejection of what the various religions have to offer in exchange for "truth" and innocence could demonstrate the start of a journey towards a religion of the self, where what they have is enough for them, and they don't need to reach into religions to find it, even though they find things appealing in the religions, because they value the truth over what religion can do for them.
"don't give me faith" seems to support this as well.. maybe the swan "mirrored" in the river refers to the self, such that the story teller wouldn't need anything they could give because the story teller has everything that the swan could give, since it represents herself.
Buuuuuuut maybe I totally read into it in ways the author didn't mean me to.
@benjaminyq I agree with you, actually. This was exactly what came to mind when I first heard the lyrics of this song. I tried to discard the idea so I could enjoy the song, and tried coming up with a few other meanings this song could bring. But in the end, I believe your interpretation to be correct.
@benjaminyq I agree with you, actually. This was exactly what came to mind when I first heard the lyrics of this song. I tried to discard the idea so I could enjoy the song, and tried coming up with a few other meanings this song could bring. But in the end, I believe your interpretation to be correct.
@benjaminyq I... did not see that coming. That really is a great interpretation. How did you think of that?
@benjaminyq I... did not see that coming. That really is a great interpretation. How did you think of that?