Day: March 29, 2009

I’ve been transcribing more letters, and listening to The Decemberists while I work. Again. This is from their new album, The Hazards of Love (the whole thing is available on YouTube). The last song is so haunting that it got stuck in one of my dreams last night.

The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned) by The Decemberists

WILLIAM:
Margaret, array the rocks around the hole before we’re sinking
A million stones, a million bones, a million holes within the chinking
And painting rings around your eyes, these peppered holes
So filled with crying
A whisper-weight upon the tattered down where you and I
Were lying.
So tell me now, O tell me this: a river’s son, a forest’s daughter
A willow wand, a will-o-wisp, our ghosts will wander all of the water

W & M:
So let’s be married here today, these rushing waves to bear our witness
And we will lie like river stones, rolling only where it takes us
But I pulled you and I called you here
(Didn’t I, didn’t I, didn’t I)
And I caught you and I brought you here
(Didn’t I, didn’t I, didn’t I)
But these hazards of love
Never more will trouble us

WILLIAM:
O Margaret the lapping waves are licking quietly at our ankles
Another bow, another breath; this brilliant chill has come to shackle

W & M:
But with this long, last rush of air let’s speak our vows in starry whisper
And when the waves came crashing down, he closed his eyes
And softly kissed her

chorus