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  • Peter Hammill

    (In the) Black Room

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(In the) Black Room lyrics

I - In the Black Room (I)
 
I was thinking about thinking
but it really didn't get me very far,
so I thought I'd throw a Tarot,
but I only got the Priestess and the Star.
There's a shadow cast on my future
Past the room and I agree to buy some time....
The cards don't tell truth nor lies,
only options and cusp lines:
the furniture in the black room.
 
I've been thinking about acid,
but, it seems, there's not a reason to believe.
I don't make a vital breakthrough
and it walks me like a dog upon a lead.
It's all unreal and, the way I feel,
I'd like to try and make it on my own....
Going to the feelings is fine:
I really have me a good pleasure cruise.
But, deep in my mind,
I'm no better or worse, just open to the walls.
Paint peels in the black of my room.
 
I'm only talking about myself, ordering my treasure shelf,
documenting present feelings as the future sets me reeling....
What I'll be is what I am,
I'm simply trying not to sham or fake.
Use vision as sense and not as crutch!
It doesn't matter all that much;
in the end we will all survive,
I'm trying not to pawn my life.
 
When I'm (maybe) old and strait-laced,
shall I then deny all that I feel?
In words of bitter compromise,
re-smelt the wrath that's in my eyes like steel?
Be a hermit then?
Or be a miser?
Be a man who hasn't managed yet to write his rules?
The Fool?
The future holds my hand in the room....
 
Well, then, my ghosts shall steer down through the years
and lay a hand upon my soul
like ice.
 
II - The Tower
 
So: onto the familiar top steps!
In cloud-scud moonlight glow
the Tower reels.
Am I, the blind man,
feeling for a path I know...
don't you know that I'm only feeling for how to feel?
 
Rats run.
Snakes coil.
Fathers
stare out at the whispering night;
rub mud on their arms.
 
Spiders.
Mud boils.
Children
whimper in the human vortex;
faces glow of worms.
 
III – Thunder
 
Thunder...
Silence.
Omens....
 
I think it's coming,
all signs are very near, all signs are that
pain shall come
and change shall run
down through my heart
and shake my knees
and now it is coming,
all around is the humming
of the World.
 
Too late, with my balance gone,
dead-eyed doll,
I'm falling, falling
back to where I began....
 
IV - In the Black Room (II)
 
I'm feeling like a kid again,
I'm feeling like I just walked in the door,
and with my head on fire
I wrote this song - I don't know who it's for.
Hands held fast in camera,
I'll swear I heard the Stammerer exclaim:
"I am a traveller, unraveller,
I only live through pain, and shame, and change!"
 
In my room, the secret tomb, I can see
future forms, space-time storms:
they're all me,
and I've only got to choose!
 
In my head I am dead, if I fall
in the trap,
the subtle lap,
a safety's pall....
but I'm living while I choose....
 

 

"(In the) Black Room"의 번역
Peter Hammill: 상위 3
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AldefinaAldefina
   月, 11/11/2019 - 22:38

I wonder why do you think the lyrics I submitted were wrong? I took them from Peter Hammill's official site (sofasound.com) - as always - but - as always - I corrected them according to what I heard, that's why these parts you mentioned were changed.

What you wrote is the same as on sofasound, but he clearly sings "a" and it cannot be "on my future past.", because he doesn't sing it this way.

Please, listen carefully to these parts and you will come to the same conclusion.

BTW, I also corrected many other lyrics from that source, because we should translate what the singer sings and not what was published somewhere, even if it were a Hammill's official site. Many lyrics there don't fit with the same song, so if you find a similar case before asking me to change what I already changed listen carefully, 'cause I can also make mistakes. :)

AldefinaAldefina
   月, 11/11/2019 - 23:06

Let me disagree. The way he sings "Past the room" seems to be a one phrase and of course it makes sense. Why not?

[@sandring] Am I right, Nadia?

sandringsandring    火, 12/11/2019 - 10:24

Absolutely. He sings "Past the room" - That's a modifier of place.

AldefinaAldefina
   月, 11/11/2019 - 23:29

Okay, let's leave it until Nadia replies. First I would like to know her opinion.

AldefinaAldefina
   月, 11/11/2019 - 23:37

Sorry, it's time for me to go to bed now. Just one thought: The sentence The room and I agree to buy some time sounds even more strange to me and doesn't seem to make sense. Can a room agree? Room has no will and cannot express its emotions, 'cause it cannot have them. Well, that's what the logic tells me. On the other hand poetry doesn't have to be logical... Just a thought...

AldefinaAldefina
   火, 12/11/2019 - 16:08

Don't trust the lyrics you can find on the artists sites. And don't think that artists upload them. Even in booklets added to CDs there are mistakes. I can recall at least one case with Chris de Burgh - "Spanish Train". That's why I correct what I submit, but I can also misinterpret what I hear.

As for the strangeness of this part it's not the first lyrics with such strange expressions. I interpret them my way when translating. That gives me the freedom for expressing how I understand these lyrics and I find it great. Those who prefer literal translations should stay away from Hammills songs.

sandringsandring    火, 12/11/2019 - 11:00

There's a shadow cast on my future past the room - that's the sentence. I've deleted the full stop that used to be there.
PiperAtDawn, that's exactly what Peter is singing on this very video. Why - only he himself can answer.

sandringsandring    水, 13/11/2019 - 07:52

Vadim, Andrzej and I as a mod and an editor have to follow THIS site's rules which tell us to put down the lyrics sung in a video. In my translation, you can get the idea of a shadow cast on Peter's future past the room. It's pretty clear. I've been into Peter's lyrics for a couple of decades and I hope I understand him well enough. Let's not dwell on this matter any longer. Thank you for understanding :)