'A perfect mirror'
The perfect mirror is a reference to the Hubble Telescope.
"Hubble orbits 600 kilometres (372 miles) above Earth, working around the clock to unlock the secrets of the Universe. It uses excellent pointing precision, powerful optics, and state-of-the-art instruments to provide stunning views of the Universe that cannot be made using ground-based telescopes or other satellites.
"Hubble was originally designed in the 1970s and launched in 1990. Thanks to on-orbit service calls by the Space Shuttle astronauts, Hubble continues to be a state-of-the-art, model year 2001 space telescope.
"Hubble is the first scientific mission of any kind that is specifically designed for routine servicing by spacewalking astronauts. It has a visionary, modular design which allows the astronauts to take it apart, replace worn out equipment and upgrade instruments. These periodic service calls make sure that Hubble produces first-class science using cutting-edge technology. See technology highlights. Each time a science instrument in Hubble is replaced, it increases Hubble scientific power by a factor of 10 or greater!"
More detail can be found at: http://hubble.nasa.gov/.
The samples
The quotes at the end of the song touch upon a number of devastating events. They include the murder of 11-year-old Sarah Payne, abducted and murdered just a few yards from where her siblings played, ten-year-old Damilola Taylor who died after being stabbed by two schoolboys aged 11 and 12, the crash of Concorde in France, an explosion/fire in Volendam in the Netherlands and a bomb on a bus in the Middle East.
Many thanks to Rich Harding, Simon Clarke and John Devereaux for those.
Songs with a link have explanations.
"I crawled around inside myself
ReplyDeleteIt was a long way down
It was a mine and it was mine
And in the darkness
I saw a perfect mirror
Floating in space"
I see SH as one of the most enlightened lyrecist in our time. Many of his songs discribes his search for finding a meaning with everything that happens to him, us and the environment (The Space) that surrounds us… I see ”the perfect mirror” as metaphor for realizing that we are all a part of and not separated from ”God´s” creation. In fact he realizes that God and his creation can also not separated from each other…
”When I meet God
I'm going to ask her
What makes her cry
What makes her laugh”
We have to ask ourselves what makes us cry and what makes us laugh.
”Love has no end
But it's dark-angel friend
Tearing women and men
Slowly apart”
The ”dark-angel” friend is our confusion and inner voices that separates us from our true selves and makes us do terrible things to ourselves, others and the environment. In fact the ”Marbles” album is a ”theme” album about the spiritual journey we all have to start and finish to find our inner true selves that can separate us from our collective and personal confusion and sufferings. The upcoming album is called ”an hour before it's dark”…
Nice interpretation!
DeleteI would also note that in the lirycs the writer refer to god as "her" (as opposite from the common "him" form) making me think that maybe god is mother'nature.