Is it necessary to analyze this song? It's one of the most straightforward of all of Simon's songs, telling the story of a marriage, from its prelude through to its epilogue. The "moral of the story" is even spelled out in the final chorus.
Now, there is a mistake in the lyrics at Simon's website. It says "He was old/she was young." This is wrong. In the song itself, Simon seems to sing: "He was old/ he was young." This, while it seems self-contradictory, is corroborated by two sources. One is the liner notes of the album.
The other is the new book Lyrics: 1964-2011, which I purchased at Paul Simon's concert here in the Chicago area last night. (Now that the book is out, someone at the website should really spend a couple of days doing line-by-line proofreading.)
The difference is enormous. The incorrect version seems a simple statement of fact as to their relative ages. The correct version provides one of the only enigmatic lines of the whole song. "He was old," in years, perhaps-- but in every other way, he was "young." Romantic, impulsive, ambitious...
The story starts with a older man attracted to a younger, married woman (her husband is immaterial to all concerned, dismissed as a mere "someone"). Our hero would "tip his heart" instead of his hand (the term comes from playing cards), meaning that he made his amorous intentions known. But even though she initially "withdrew," she hears the sound of the distant train as much as he does ("everybody" hears, it, after all).
The next steps seem automatic and inevitable: "Eventually" they marry, "sure enough" they have a boy. But even while she was pregnant, "disagreements had begun."
It is not clear when the child is born, relative to their divorce. But divorce they do, although they "they remain in contact." The line "Let us say it’s for the child," implies that this is not the true reason, but one that seems reasonable and acceptable to both and to the families and community involved (is the real reason that they are still somewhat attracted to each other?).
The word "disagreements" comes up again, this time with regard to the "marriage contract," but again more is going on. Certainly lawyers can (although expensively) debate that, professionally and coolly. Their "conversations," meanwhile are "hard and wild" and obviously about things more personal and intimate than just legalities.
Was there something,,, there? Well, "from time to time, he just makes her laugh/ She cooks a meal or two." Here, we have a disagreement, to borrow a word, about lyrics again. The website and album notes say "he makes her laugh," while the song itself and the Lyrics book have it "he just makes her laugh." This is not as crucial an issue as the disputed pronoun above, but it does go to a central theme of the song.
Which is that it had to happen this way, going back to when he "doggedly" hounded and wooed her. This goes through the "eventual" and "sure enough" phases discussed above to how they "just fell apart." And now, he "just makes her laugh." He doesn't seem to mean to, but something he says "just" strikes her as terribly amusing.
The narrative breaks, during the divorce chapter, for the speaker to insert an observation about the characters: "Two disappointed believers/ Two people playing the game." They do believe in love, but are disappointed by marriage. Instead of loving each other and working toward compromises for the advancement of the union, they are "playing" against each other, each trying to win and advance his or her own interests.
The phrase "negotiations and love songs" would become the title of one of Simon's compilations of hits, but here it means that love songs, through which one hopes to win the heart of the other, are often little more then sales pitches, in which the singer hopes to win, period. But while dogs chase cars, what would a dog do with a car if it caught one? What good is winning if, now that you have sealed the deal and gotten married, the game is over? Then the power struggle moves into the marriage itself, with everyone losing.
Why? Why does all of this have to happen, with the forgone nature of one "train" car following the next down a predetermined track?
It is not outside fate exactly, Simon theorizes, but how our brains are wired (or "woven") for ambition and improvement of our situations: "The thought that life could be better/ Is woven indelibly/ Into our hearts/ And our brains."
It's not the song that needs to be explained, after all. It's the people in the story, a tale so lacking in detail that the characters never even get names. We have all heard of some couple that this story, in some form, has happened to. So it is important to ask why such a story is so sadly common.
Still, there is some growth. "The boy and the girl get married," but after they divorce, "the man and the woman remain in contact." They haven't simply grown older, they have grown up.
And, if either one does marry again, it might actually go "better." For her, she left her first marriage for this man. But this time, she leaves her second husband for herself. Certainly, she will have to be mature enough to think of the impact this would have for her child. But if she does marry again, it should be for the right reasons.
Meanwhile, he was old when he started this adventure, and now he is a father. Still, he is "dogged" and "young" in a way, so maybe he will have another shot as well.
Did ambition and competition destroy this marriage, even before it had begun? Yes. Will the same thing happen in the next go-round? Well, as Samuel Johnson explained, "Second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience."
Next Song: Rene And George Magritte with Their Dog After The War
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I have just discovered this blog and it's amazing. Thanks so much for doing this. And so glad to see someone else who recognises Paul Simon's supremacy as a songwriter.
ReplyDeleteRosalie-- Thanks! And thanks also for "recognising" that an American songwriter is as good as any Brit.
ReplyDeleteWell, yes. Not that I tend to think of Paul Simon as particularly American (sorry) or of John Lennon as particularly British, come to that. They're all world citizens where I'm concerned :)
ReplyDeleteMind you, I think most US modern literature is way better than the UK equiv, if that's any comfort...
Esteemed Another Paul! I'm a freelancer translator from Russia. Simon's poetry is one of my favorite thing of interest. Your blog's very helpful for me. You write:It's not the song that needs to be explained... Please, think about the foreign listeners and readers. Then do your excellent work. Great thankfulness for you. How about next Simon's albums?
ReplyDeleteEsteemed Another Paul! My name’s Valeriy. I'm a freelancer translator from Russia. Simon's poetry is one of my favorite things of interest. Your blog's very helpful for me. You write:It's not the song that needs to be explained... Please, think about the foreign listeners and readers. Then do your excellent work. Great thankfulness for you. How about the next Simon's albums?
ReplyDeleteResponse to Rosalie: One of my favorite photos of Lennon shows him wearing a New York City shirt and standing in front of the Statue of Liberty; he certainly loved New York. And Simon, even more so, has worked with songwriters and musicians from Brazil to England to South America; he even wrote a song called "Citizen of the Planet."
ReplyDeleteResponse to Valeriy: Privyet... and Spasibo. I am glad that my blog is useful to you. I am working on Simon's songs in the order they are presented on the albums. So after "Hearts and Bones" there are a few more songs that are not on any album, and then I will start in on the "Graceland" album either before the end of 2011 or at the start of 2012. While it is true that the majority of my readers are from English-speaking countries, as another reader just wrote, Simon's audience was truly worldwide, and so is my readership. In fact, one of his songs begins: "I am a citizen of the planet." I certainly hope people from other countries are helped to understand the meaning behind Simon's poetry, which like much poetry does not always translate well. And then there are American and other cultural and historical ideas that need to be defined and explained. Your English is excellent, by the way!
ReplyDeleteJust a nice, small discovery for you to make. That one line in 'Train in the distance' is not "She cooks a meal OF two" but "She cooks a meal OR two". Look it up in the PS Lyrics book, or on the record sleeve.
ReplyDeleteI noticed this because the expression is literally the same in Dutch (my native language)."She cooks a meal or two" meaning literally that she may cook one or two meals. And figuratively that she might not just leave it at one meal, but may be offering another one if she likes to.
So what have we got here? He makes an attempt to (re)connect by not just talking to her, but by trying to make her laugh - in spite of the dire circumstances. While she makes an attempt to (re)connect by not just offering that one casual, obligatory meal, but to grant him some more of her hospitality... in spite of the circumstances.
Two meals = two days of hospitality. And a whole night in between.
It's really not that unusual among ex-lovers. If someone has gotten so deeply into your heart & bones & brains, it's pretty hard to wipe them out of your emotional system.
One little word... and a world of meaning opening up. That's why I like Simon's songs.
Hannes-- Thank you. Yes, it is a meal "or" two. That was a typo. I am now re-editing all of the pages, 25 per week, to catch just such errors.
ReplyDeleteHi there,
ReplyDeleteJust want to throw out my own interpretation on the "he was old/he was young" line. In falling in line with this being a song with more literal than ambiguous lyrics, I always assumed that "he was old" referred to 'her' first husband, with the 'he' being so doggedly determined partly on account of being younger than his rival. Just my spin on it!
Came to this site to offer the same conclusion. Kudos for getting there first.
DeleteHe was old/ he was young. Been listening to that for years. Think I got it.
ReplyDeleteThere are two males here. The someone she was married to and the one determined to get her. The former is old, the latter young.
What a wonderful gem. Hidden in plain sight until you consider the story told.
Fred and Rasmus-- I think we can take a cue from Dylan here, when he sings, "I was so much older then/ I'm younger than that now." He was more confident of his knowledge, now he is aware of his own ignorance.
ReplyDeleteAge is a number; youth is a state of mind. Here, Simon means, I think, that while he was technically old, he was still young at heart, or naive, or hopeful, or inexperienced, or all of the above.
Surely the song is saying we love the sound that a ‘train’ makes but we’re not bothered about the amount of work involved in making the sound.
ReplyDeleteIt’s the quintessential’I want it and I want it now’
Genius and a beautiful album.
The references to John Lennon seem to be quite relevant. Cars are cars references Lennon on ‘ Drive em on the left’
ReplyDeletePJ Lennon-- I know that that in some countries, including England, they drive on the "other" side of the road. But can you elaborate as to why "drive 'em on the left" is a Lennon reference, specifically? I am not has familiar with all of Lennon's work as I am with Simon's, and quick online search didn't reveal any Lennon lyrics about driving on the left. (Also, you may want to make that same note on the entry for Cars are Cars.) Thanks.
ReplyDeletePJ Lennon-- As to the sound of a train being hard to make, I think that people are willing to make an effort to get what they want; the protagonist of this song "doggedly" pursues this woman, even though she is married! I think what Simon is saying that once we DO get what we want, we then want something else. We keep thinking "Life could be better," even once we achieve the goals that were supposed to be the better ones. We only want what we don't have.
ReplyDeleteHi AnoPaul! Thanks for your post. I just got some new ideas on the lines "Negotiations and love songs / Are often mistaken for one and the same", so I'll just write them down here.
ReplyDeleteIn the past I didn't quite understand these two lines. I mean, the meaning is clear - maybe "negotiations" and "love songs" are similar things, so people are thinking they are the same thing, but that's a mistake - but what exactly is "negotiation"?
Recently I noticed the last two lines in the lyrics: "Into our hearts / And our brains". Now I think these two pairs of lines both allude to different aspects of marriage: in our hearts, we want love and care and attention and kisses and so whatever, that's the emotional part, or the "love song" part. And in our brains, marriage can be a collaborative project: we build our home and raise our kids together, and in the meanwhile we "negoatiate" for everyone's interest. If the negotiation breaks down, we fall apart.
Just some quick thoughts.
By the way, I recently revised my Chinese translation for this song. I think I found a mistake of mine: in the past, I treated "Southern skies" literally as "the sky in the southern direction", but now I realized that it should be "the starry southern night sky". It would be strange to say that a girl is as beautiful as plain sky... And, of course, in the official lyrics, "S" is capitalized.
ReplyDeleteAstophil-- Thanks for your comments. I think you are on the right... (train) track with your idea. Love songs are all about idealism, while negotiations are about reality. How can they be mistaken for the same thing?
ReplyDeleteI think the answer lies in a quote by the great actress Meryl Streep. She said: "The key to acting is to realize that 'I love you' is a question." When someone says 'I love you,' they are also asking, 'And how do you feel about me?'
So a love song carries with it the hope that that person being sung TO will reciprocate: "I give you love; what do I get?" In a sense it is a sales pitch-- 'Here's my heart, what can I get for it? Make me an offer."
As to your translation, I do feel it is an improvement. However, since the setting for the line (and the next few words) is "the NIGHT he met her," it is not necessary to repeat the word "night" in your translation. (You would have it: "She was beautiful as the starry Southern NIGHT sky the NIGHT he met her," you see.)
Also, not that I have been there, but why wouldn't the skies in the South be pretty in the daytime, too? Instead of "skies in the Southern direction," how about just "the skies of the South"?
Thank you for your response! That's a very nice quotation of Meryl Streep anyway ... Not only "I love you", but so many so-called declarations can be seen as questions and hopes and maybe future negoations. They declare and hope and negoatiate, always intending to "make life better".
DeleteThank you for your suggestion, really. Actually in Chinese we have a simpler terminology describing "the starry Southern NIGHT sky", "南天星空", which doesn't literally contain the word NIGHT but indicates that it's a night sky.
And, yes, yes ... the skies in the South is beautiful, too, but I find out that when I simply translate "southern skies" literally, my readers are confused because they don't see why Simon compares a girl to a "sky"; they don't get the indicated meaning that it might be a night sky, so the girl might be somehow shining (which is something more often used to describe a girl), and so on.
Well, there ARE some language and culture barriers between Simon and his Chinese fans ... Simon is too good at using metaphors and implications and word plays and so on and so on, which is somehow PURGATORY for us lyric translators. Some choose to translate word by word ("She was beautiful as southern skies" -> "she was as beautiful as the sky in the southern direction"), some translate what they perceive ("She was beautiful as southern skies" -> "she was as beautiful as a night sky shining with stars"), and I ... try to strike a balance.
PS. Today I did some leisure reading and realized the similarity between these two pairs: "She was beautiful as southern skies the night he met her / She was married to someone" vs "She walks in beauty, like the night / Of cloudless climes and starry skies;" (something by Lord Baron).
Astrophil-- The poem is just tiled "She Walks in Beauty," and the poet was Lord Byron (as it happens, the kind of lord he was [there are many levels of lordship] was a Baron). Byron was his last name; his actual first name was George.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm impressed that you know it at all-- poetry has not been prized my Americans for several decades.
I understand that translating is as much an art as it is a science. There is a famous case of a UN translation computer being asked to translate a common English phrase into Russian, then Japanese, then back to English.
The phrase was "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." It came back "The wine is good, but the meat is bad."
I can only trust that you know your audience well. The important thing is that they understand the woman in question is being described as beautiful-- both starry skies and Southern skies are beautiful, so either one works.
I was thinking about the metaphor of the train and then I realised that the sound of the train doesn't convey what it's going to be. It could be a lovely old steam engine that's been well kept by enthusiasts or a grotty old diesel that hasn't been washed in years and all the toilets are broken. You can't tell until it arrives, but our hopes make us assume it's good.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, the man and woman took a chance assuming it would be better than what they currently had and busted out.
Gerkuman-- Yes, this is one of the songs in which Simon tips his hand and tells us what the "moral of the story" is: "The thought that life could be better is woven... into our hearts and our brains."
ReplyDeleteAnd that thought is tied into "the sound of a train in the distance," the idea that life is also going on elsewhere, and maybe our better life is there-- wherever that train is bound.
Is that true? Is it better there? Once we were there, would we prefer to be back home instead? Maybe?
Perhaps the worst-equipped ones to chime in on this debate are rockstars, who leave home to go on the road... to sing sings about how hard life is on the road and how much they miss their homes.