It's sweet reading the innocent interpretations from 10 years ago when the album first came out.
But if you check out the album as a whole and the songs are all about heartbreak, disappointment, and things coming to an end. This song sets the tone.
"I'm a little boy, you're a little girl" refers to the feeling a very intimate relationship can have that the people have known each other their whole lives going back to childhood.
"Once upon a time" refers to how it was in the past, or is passing, and how it was so magic it seems like a fairy tale to him.
"Time's getting on, time's over now" refers to the relationship ending. The "time" from "once upon a time" is over now.
Taken together, he's saying that somewhere back there, they are still the little boy and little girl, but that was once upon a time, and in the present, their time is ending, has ended.
The admonishments "no time after it's too late" and "don't try to run after time" refer to not trying to resurrect the relationship after it's become clear that it's over.
It's sweet reading the innocent interpretations from 10 years ago when the album first came out.
But if you check out the album as a whole and the songs are all about heartbreak, disappointment, and things coming to an end. This song sets the tone.
"I'm a little boy, you're a little girl" refers to the feeling a very intimate relationship can have that the people have known each other their whole lives going back to childhood.
"Once upon a time" refers to how it was in the past, or is passing, and how it was so magic it seems like a fairy tale to him.
"Time's getting on, time's over now" refers to the relationship ending. The "time" from "once upon a time" is over now.
Taken together, he's saying that somewhere back there, they are still the little boy and little girl, but that was once upon a time, and in the present, their time is ending, has ended.
The admonishments "no time after it's too late" and "don't try to run after time" refer to not trying to resurrect the relationship after it's become clear that it's over.
It is a terribly heartbreaking lyric.