Epica – White Waters Lyrics

I think it's about suicide... He wants to go to his beloved one, who has died.. and now he's drowning himself.. hmmm

I think it may be something to do with the mythological sirens, who would serenade and seduce sailors into jumping overboard, where they would drown them.

I think the previous commenter is close. I had considered the sirens, but they typically cause sailors to crash against the rocks. I presume this song's meaning is closer to the evil mermaids of ancient myth. They would cause men to drown by luring them deep within the sea. As for the line "would you forgive me?" I don't have a clue how it fits in with sirens or mermaids. Beautiful song though. :-)

Well I think one thing that the previous commenters are missing (or at least not saying) is that this is a dialog between the man and the woman (the different vocals actually serve a purpose woaaah). In the first stanza the man uses metaphors as descriptions for the woman. The descriptions are all smooth, calming, but nearly nonexistent. Therefore, the man is awestruck and in disbelief. He poses questions in order to clear up uncertainty. The questions also emphasize his fascination with the woman. The woman in the second stanza uses comforting/reassuring words towards the man, which are very luring to the listener because at this point the listener is totally engrossed in the song and highly relates to the words being said.the third stanza is the man again. this time he expresses some comprehension of his situation, but still exhibits the same attitude towards the woman, if not more absorbed and sharper, at least in the first two lines. The next lines hints at the bigger meaning behind the text. The numb, aching, and waiting all show some slowly but deeply gnawing sorrow. The man has now shown that he is being lured towards water (back to the smooth/calming) as opposed to previously when the action was only a sensation. The man then refers back to the water, and due to the syntax it can be seen that the woman and water are closely related, almost one in the same. He asks permission for entrance into the woman's realm, showing that he views the woman as a higher order being. The connotation of "welcome" is very homey, again showing the lure of the realm/water.The woman speaks again with much of the same, but this time basically tells the man that its okay for him to no longer do anything, even breathe, and in fact thats what should happen. The phrase "try not to breathe" is very important, moving the meaning of the text into a death-related meaning, but due to the last stanza the meaning is more of just a release. The deathliness (new word!) of the release can be considered a hyperbolic description. Also worth noting, She shows empathy of the man's sorrows through affectionate wording.The last stanza is the man. he speaks of events in the past tense, implying that all the previous stanzas pretty much told a story. He shows remorse and surprised at whatever happened in the past to cause him pain. The last two lines show that the man is feeling the same pains again, quite possibly due to mistakes that drove the woman away.The meaning should be fairly obvious by now, but heres a question you can ask yourself to twist your interpretation:Are the man and the woman really just a man and a woman, or do they (or one of them) symbolize something else?you can thank IB HL English (junior year) for this wall of text.