A Spindle, a Darkness, a Fever and a Necklace

很美的一首歌，開頭是一個還在認字的小孩有點費力地在念一段對話，隱約有個男聲在旁教他念，可能是這段對話中的男主角，但是我們曉得這個小孩一定不知道他在念的是一段悲傷的故事，他只是念。後面那段如同許多歌詞一樣不容易懂，但是那樣的合旋那樣的唱腔，你還是聽到了回憶、想像、悔恨。

A Spindle, a Darkness, a Fever and a Necklace
Bright Eyes, FEVERS AND MIRRORS, 2000

“So long everything!” he shouted, then he ran next door to Margot’s house.
“I’m moving,” he said.
“Where?,” asked Margot.
“Two Weeks Away,” he said.
“Mitchell, where is that?” asked Margot.
“It’s everywhere I will be after I walk for two weeks,” said Mitchell, “I have lived in the same place for a long time, it is time for me to go some place else.”
“No.” said Margot, “You have only lived next door 15 years.”
“16,” said Mitchell.
“15..16, what’s the difference?” said Margot, “I want you to stay next door forever.”
“I can’t,” said Mitchell, ” I do not want to go wake up in the same old bed and eat breakfast in the same old kitchen. Every room in my house is the same old room, because i have lived there too long.
“And you look at me and think, same old face, same old tail, same old scale, same old walk, same old talk,” said Margot
“No,” said Mitchell, “I like your face, tail,scale, walk and talk.”
“I like you”
“I like you too,” said Mitchell. He walked through the door.
“I must pack,” he said.

You turn on a spindle. You are so much looser now but you’re not explaining how you gained such new repose. I touch the clasp of your locket, with its picture held, some secret you wouldn’t tell but let it choke your neck. So we imagine a darkness where all shapes divide, solids changing into light, with a burst of heat so bright. Well fine, don’t you do what I want you to.

Don’t degrade yourself the way I do because you don’t depend on all the shit that I use to make my moods improve. Near a sea of pianos, there were waves of chords that crashed against the shore in one huge and pointless roar. And there were girls bringing water, like a dream they came to cure the fever of my brain, and soothe my burning throat. And they made me a necklace, hanging beads of sweat on a string of my regrets, and placed it round my neck and they were singing, Don’t you do what you’ve wanted to. Yeah, don’t destroy yourself like those cowards do and maybe the sun keeps coming up because it has gotten used to you and your constant need for proof.