Song To The Siren – A Yearning for the Transcendent
Across the years, the siren still calls.
The sound of the siren rises through the tides of my life. Sometimes gentle, sometimes urgent, drawing me toward a shore I have yet to reach.
For some, the siren is danger. For me, it is my calling. Not fixed, but ever-evolving, always horizoning my future.
Song To The Siren was written by Tim Buckley and Larry Becket, first released by Tim Buckley on his 1970 album, Starsailor. ▶️ Listen to it now:
Video courtesy of TheSamRadio on Vimeo.com.
Lyrics
Long afloat on shipless oceans, I did all my best to smile, ’til your singing eyes and fingers, drew me, loving, to your isle.
And you sang: “Sail to me, sail to me, let me enfold you. Here I am. Here I am, waiting to hold you.”
Did I dream you dreamed about me? Were you hare when I was fox? Now my foolish boat is leaning, broken lovelorn on your rocks.
For you sing: “Touch me not, touch me not, come back tomorrow. Oh my heart, oh my heart shies from the sorrow.”
Well I’m as puzzled as the newborn child. I’m as riddled as the tide. Should I stand amid the breakers? Or should I lie with death, my bride?
Hear me sing: “Swim to me, swim to me, let me enfold you. Here I am. Here I am, waiting to hold you.”
How the song haunts me
Many of Tim Buckley’s songs are haunting, and this song tops them all. The eerie music, the emphatic voice and the poetry all bedazzle me.
Poetry being poetry, I put my own meaning to the evocative words.
My life’s journey in song
The song uses metaphors of sea, the siren that is calling, and sailing, all apt in the journey of my life.
I hear the song as a conversation between me and the siren.
The siren is symbolism for the transcendent, meaning higher than the obvious, and higher than the seen — in my life and in my living. It is beyond the material. It is the “purpose,” or are “the layers of purposes,” above just surviving, and above pursuing satisfaction and happiness.
The siren is my calling, which is ever-evolving and ever-rising, higher and higher, as my vision of it becomes clearer and clearer.
The siren wants to enfold me while I, too, want to enfold it. Enfold: surround, envelop, embrace, closely hold and cover.
Both sides are ready for each other, not only to hold each other, but also to hold tighter.
The long journey of being “afloat” has had me struggling with my best to (smile) be good, and be happy, satisfied and grateful with the life I have lived.
But the siren keeps calling me, drawing me nearer and nearer to the isle that should be the final destination. And I know that I am not there yet. I think I am certain of what the isle should really be, but I cannot be certain on how to get there! So I sail on.
Who is hare and who is fox? Interchangeably the siren and I are giving “chase” to each other. And I am getting closer and closer to the siren.
“On your rocks” I do get broken, because of my sometimes heedless machinations.
Oh temptations, touch me not (!) while I build strength to resist. I want to shy away from, I want to preserve myself from the consequences of destructive desire.
I am in baby-like wonder continuing to learn and grow, amidst confusion. I put up breakers to strive against hardship and tribulations. Still, at the same time I surrender and submit.
I am sailing through longing yet hope
It is a melancholic song of no longer me drifting, but instead sailing wilfully to find the source of the siren and immerse myself in what it promises. There is hope.
Photo montage: My 1985 hair like Tim Buckley’s mane. Photo of me with daughter Hana (and her baby wonder) was taken when I was 28. Tim Buckley had died 10 years before, in 1975, when he himself was 28. I am now 68.
