The Crane Wife 3

This song is just lovely. It's about as remorseful as you can get, but at the end it almost sounds...determined, if that makes any sense. Probably because it's based off of a fable, it feels like the morality of it all is puncuated, and that the narrator himself is forcing himself to fully confront the wrongness of his actions.

Or, it's just telling the end of the story. Beautiful song.

The man who gains a wife that is secretly an animal and then loses his wife because he finds out her true identity is a common theme in Japanese folklore. An even more common theme is that a man disobeys a command given him by his wife, usually not to look at her while she is doing something which reveals her supernatural nature, this discovery leading to their separation. A great deal, though by no means all, of Japanese folktales end in this bittersweet sadness left in the wake of the wife's parting. This aesthetic is called "mono no aware", meaning something like "tragic beauty that comes from the bittersweet sadness of things".

This song is about the last part of the story of folk tale of The Crane Wife when the husband's curiosity gets the better of him and he has to look in on his wife doing her work to discover how she is creating the beautiful silken cloth with no thread or materials other than her loom. Finding the crane in that room and seeing her ripping out her feathers to weave them into the cloth he realizes she is the crane who he saved. Watching her fly away he is filled with regret and shame ("And, I will hang my head... hang my head low.") knowing that he was causing her harm despite his love for her.

It sounds more like he says "bowsunbow" to me, though i've never heard of either words "bowsunbelle" or "bowsunbow." The second line should be "all clothed in a snowy shroud" instead of "I'll hold in the snowy shroud"

Then I think he says "bitter stain" rather than "bitter skin" followed by "a rain cloud, a crane on me" I'm not sure if it is "on me" though I am sure it is Crane rather than rain. Then, "All out beyond horizon," not "behind" That he says "stain" makes sense because in track 9 (crane wife 1 and 2) he says "it was a white crane it was a helpless thing upon a red stain with an arrow in its wing"

Good song, but curiosity leads me to wonder why they decided to order the album so that part 3 to the Crane Wife story comes before parts one and two.

where are the comments?!!!!!!!!?!?!?! i love this song so much my god! that melody, that instrumentation... sorry to gush but jesus

makes my heart cry and smile at once

*punctuated

You know it's going to be a good album when its first song makes you cry and smile at the same time. (Sorry, but farewell2RMS took the words right out of my mouth.) I do believe the Decemberists have done it again.

For the first verse, I hear-

And under the boughs unbound All clothed in a snowy shroud She had no heart so hardened All under the boughs unbound

And for the third verse I hear-

A grey sky, a bitter sting A rain could, a crane on wing All out beyond horizon A grey sky, a bitter sting

Anywho, I think this song is really amazing and I've been listening to it for over half an hour now.

Try 'under the boughs unbowed'