Thursday, May 5, 2011

half life, imperfect



I hadn't listened to it for such a long time, perhaps out of fear of its bleak spell, of its truth. But today I let it soak me through and through again, and the message remains as baffling as ever.

And yet so consoling, and yet so sad, when there is nothing else.


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MANAFON
lyrics & vocals: David Sylvian

music: Dafeldecker / Fennesz / Moser / Rowe / Sylvian


There's a man down in the valley
Who doesn't speak in his own tongue
He bears a grudge against the English
The tune to which his songs are sung

There's a man down in the valley
Who is moving back in time
It's a physical ascension
You can watch him as he climbs

The farmer's wives are at their windows
They've seen him wind his way for hours
They tell the kids to lower their voices
And pretend that they are out

There's a man down in the valley
Trying to stop time in its tracks
His boots lie heavy on the grasses
But it keeps on pushing back

And his wife she was a painter
But now she stains the altar black
He's out bird watching on the islands
And she wishes he'd come back

There's a man down in the valley
And he dreams of moving west
Of battles raged against the furies
That might see him at his best

There's a man down in the valley
Don't know his right foot from his left

Don't know his right foot from his left


(Source: http://www.davidsylvian.com/texts/lyrics_and_poetry/manafon_lyrics.html)

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