Lyrics by Joaquim Montelius (music by Eskil Simonsson)
A
billion words ago the
sailors disappeared
A story for the
children to rock them back to sleep
A
million burning books like
torches in our hands
The
fabric of ideals to decorate our homes
A
thousand generations the soil on which we
walk
A
mountain of mistakes for us to climb for
pleasure
A hundred
clocks are ticking, the
line becomes a
circle
Spin the
wheel of fortune or learn to
navigate
CHORUS:
A
choir full of longing
Will
call our ships to port
The countless lonely
voices
Like
whispers in the dark
(Repeat x2)
A second of reflection can take you to the
moon
The slightest hesitation can
bring you down in flames
A single spart of
passion can
change a man
forever
A moment in a
lifetime is all it takes to break him
A
fraction of a
heartbeat has made us what we are
A
brother and a
sister,
for better or for worse
A
billion words ago they sang a song of leaving
An
echo from the
chorus will call them back again
(Chorus x 2)
Tonight
we light the fires
We
call our ships to port
Tonight we
walk on water
And tomorrow we'll be
gone
(Repeat until end)
The original post was submitted under the title Covenant's Call the Ships to Port and Iraq. Since then, however, I've decided to include the original lyrics first, with the hairsplitting exegeies thereof below:
I was enjoying the latest release from the Swedish Futurepop / Goth / EBM / whatever flavour of the month they want to be called group Covenant the other day, a fine little album entitled Northern Light, when, inspired by both excessive amounts of caffeine and alcohol in my system (my third brandy and coke that afternoon) I suddenly had a nice little epiphany through the second track that relates to current attention being foucsed on the Middle East, which you'll find me taking apart line by line a couple paragraphs below.
Bear in mind, however, that the album itself came out in the last quarter of 2002, and that the song was written several months prior to that. I doubt that the band even predicted that attention / action in Iraq would escalate to what it has achieved at the time of this node's writing, and so I don't seriously entertain the notion that it was tailored specifically as a commentary against the now-current conflict.
From the right angle though, as they say, it all seems to fall into place.
*/begins hyper-analytical deconstructionist reading*
A billion words ago the sailors disappeared
Since Montelius is Scandinavian (the lyrics notwithstanding) I am assuming that he implies the Continental European unit of reckoning, that is to say, a number amounting to 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion by American standards, and I think simply "a million million" in the United Kingdom). Because that is an almost inconceivable volume of text, it is likely that the number is purely arbitrary and that, in actuality, the amount of words is much smaller. These "words," whatever they may be individually, comprise some kind of a larger whole into which they can be classified together. The "sailors" are a thinly-veiled reference to America's armed forces, who rely heavily on staging positions from the sea to conduct operations.
A story for the children to rock them back to sleep
Could very well be construed as the umpteen different rationales we have heard for America attacking Iraq. America has been repeatedly told not to worry and that the war will be quickly over and done with -- something, that, in light of recent events, does not seem to mesh well with reality. In any case, it is not quite a stretch to call either form of press a fairy-tale, whose classic function is to pacify young children (a patronizing double entendre for the public the media tries to reach?) before they turn in for the night.
A million burning books like torches in our hands
When people burn books, they seek by proxy to eradicate the ideas that they represent. This could be a conscious effort on somebody's part to stamp out one or another form of discourse on the subject of the justification of involvement in the Middle East. Montelius uses the first person plural pronoun for the first time here, implying that he is not at all distanced from the issue at hand.
The fabric of ideals to decorate our homes
An obvious allusion to the American flag, which has been draped, plastered and pinned to just about any and every bare surface since the fated events of September 11th. The flag represents to those who "decorate" with it the core ideals of democracy and freedom, and often finds a mounting place on the awnings and front lawns of single-family homes.
A thousand generations the soil on which we walk
Ah, another big number, but here far less arbitrary: one generation is equivalent to approximately twenty years; a thousand generations prior to the present day would bring us roughly around the year of 18,000 B.C. It should come as no surprise then, that evidence shows that Sumeria and Persia were settled by early humans around this same period.
A mountain of mistakes for us to climb for pleasure
It is amazing how lucid a picture good metaphors can paint. Three things can happen during the course of climbing a mountain: the climber can achieve his pre-set goal, of reaching whatever height he set for himself; he can stop at any point and declare himself content or at a limit to the level of progress he has made and go back to the base of the mountain, or he can slip and fall, freeze, or otherwise become incapacitated to the point where he will not be able to extricate himself from the situation on his own. Whatever the case, a "mountain of mistakes" implies a very difficult to achieve goal and many lapses in foresight which lead to an unpredicted slow or dangerous journey to the summit. Doing this "for pleasure" suggests that the climber seems to nonetheless enjoy the journey itself, heedless of the difficulty and trouble he encounters on the way.
A hundred clocks are ticking; the line becomes a circle
It sounds almost like a military / political manuever of sorts, as in a simple, one-dimensional barrier of opposition (The U.N., Iraqi forces?) making itself into a more threatening formation (to surround its opponent?) with the hope of forcing a more advantageous outcome. The current Iraqi strategy seems to be following this line of reasoning. Time has been from the beginning a source of tension for this conflict, with deadlines often being set, extended, and little idea of what will come to pass after each set episode.
Spin the wheel of fortune or learn to navigate
Here, this lyric is delivered almost as a form of castigation, to leave fate open to chance (that is, relinquish control of the situation at hand) or to become better at managing it.
CHORUS:
A choir full of longing
Hmm, here is where things get rather interesting. A "choir" may not necessarily denote a congregation of choristers in song, but rather a group of people calling out with a common plea.
Will call our ships to port
The choir will end the conflict altogether or just bring the troops home? Very deep stuff.
The countless lonely voices
Like whispers in the dark (repeat x2)
A good analogy to the protest situation both in the USA and abroad, which the American press has chosen largely to ignore or discount. When opinions are shunned or isolated the people that express them begin to feel themselves "alone." "Darkness" does not necessarily prevent soft sounds from being heard, but could be a simple, overreaching concept for ignorance or obstruction in general.
A second of reflection can take you to the moon
Meaning, that contemplation can take one to great mental heights, from which all of an (abstract) landscape becomes visible. This lyric gains a bit of extra significance when paired with the following:
The slightest hesitation can bring you down in flames
A comment on the overwhelming and often unpredicted danger that exists in wartime. Could be seen as a reference to the CH-46 Sea Knight crash that killed four Americans and twelve British early on in the conflict. One might also take it, in light of the preceding line, as the crash of the Columbia space shuttle, which was celebrated by many Iraqis as a sign of God's vengeance and loathing for the United States.
A single spark of passion can change a man forever
A moment in a lifetime is all it takes to break him
This draws the attention to the tumultuous day of September 11th, whose events dispelled the United States of America's long-held, if subconscious belief that it was a power that was safe and sheltered from foreign attacks. Montelius reminds us that nations, like people, are mortal (in that they can come to an end) and fragile (in that there are some things that occur that they can never properly come to terms with).
A fraction of a heartbeat has made us what we are
A brother and a sister, for better or for worse
I see this as representative of the U.S.'s tight relationship with its bridge to Europe and the rest of the world, the U.K. They comprise the vast majority of the coalition forces positioned in Iraq. Both countries' respective leaders, in addition, have put an enormous amount of political (and economic) capital on the line by committing themselves to action in the Middle East, no matter in what direction the winds of change will blow.
A billion words ago they sang a song of leaving
An echo from the chorus will call them back again
"Echo" in this sense might not be a simple repitition of what was once sung, but rather as a kind of antiphonal response -- in this case, a "song" directly opposite in thematic tone to what was once "sung." This could be a prediction of vacillating American popular opinion that, which initially supported the war, could end up going against it.
Tonight we light the fires
We call our ships to port
Most likely this would be realized as some kind of vigil, as vigils are candlelight affairs usually conducted at dusk or evening in the "dark" and have a rather sedate atmosphere where "whispers" are more likely to be heard than impassioned cries.
Tonight we walk on water
A euphemism for achieving something believed to be impossible in the course of normal human events (i.e., a miracle)?
And tomorrow we'll be gone
Yes, our human mortality comes up once again in this song. People do not live very long in the grand scheme of things, so they are very often driven to leave as much of an impact as possible in their short lives. One day for each of us, "tomorrow" literally will be the last day, so we need effect as much as we can before it is too late for us to do anything.