The Sound of Silence

“hello darkness my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted
In my brain still remains
“Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked along
Narrow streets of cobble stone
Beneath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed
By the flash of a neon light
That split the light
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dare
Disturb the sound of silence
Fool said I You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the walls of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the signs said The words of the prophets
are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
Whispering in the sounds of silence”
——"The Sound of Silence", written by Simon Paul, recorded in Simon & Garfunkel's first album, Wednesday Morning, 3 AM

What u see above is the lyric of "The Sound of Silence". I accidentally heard this song once n fall in love with it miraculously. I love this song, no matter it's lyric or the melody, and also the melodious voice of Simon and Garfunkel. And this is what Simon said in an interview with Terry Gross of National Public Radio (NPR), "I think about songs that it's not just what the words say but what the melody says and what the sound says."

There was many types of interpretion from many people. Some says that the song was written after the asassination of John Kennedy. Some says that it's an 'anti-war song' as by the time it became popular, it was also the time when the Vietnam War was on.

Some says that the song is about man's lack of communication with his fellow man. Some says that it is about someone who has found truth, come to some kind of self awareness, truer perception of reality or something like that but at the same time he sees that most people are not singing from that hymnsheet. Some think that it is about a teenage angst or frustration.

At the same time, many people have various perspective towards the lyrics. Just take the sentence "people talking without speaking" as an example. Some think that this refer to the present ongoing of this world--people now can make a gesture or manner to let others know what he or she is thinking without speaking out a single word. Some think this means that the people communicate with each other through their hearts. There are also people say so, "In 1964, there was no mobile texting and net chatting going on so i doubt that 'talking without speaking' refers to this." There are still a lot of examples, but i think it's better to search for it on your own if you are interested.

Some people even found the parallel in litereture and movie. As example, the novel Steppenwolf written by Hesse.

Example 1 on Page 29 (of OWL's 1990 Steppenwolf reprint): Hesse's main character (Harry Haller) is walking alone at night in the rain. He writes:

"I trod the moist pavements of the narrow streets. As though in tears and veiled, the lamps glimmered through the chill gloom and sucked their reflections slowly from the wet ground."

Simon: "On restless streets I walked alone, Narrow streets of cobbled-stone"; "Neath the halo of an old street lamp".

Example 2 (on Page 37):
"I loitered as I wended my way homeward; turned up my collar and struck my stick on the wet pavement".

Simon: "I turned my collar to the cold and damp"

There's more too. During this night time walk, Hesse's character discovers a strange sign in the darkest of alleyways - a decidedly ELECTRIC SIGN... The NEON LIGHT in Simon's song - Only in the novel Hesse's sign says: "MAGIC THEATRE; ENTRANCE NOT FOR EVERYBODY; FOR MADMEN ONLY!"

Apart from that, "The Sound of Silence" has a lot of meaning in the movie The Graduate. The lyrics refer to silence as a cancer, and if people in the movie had just been honest and not afraid to talk, all the messy things would not have happened. Problems can be solved only by honesty.

Sooo, it's quite interesting for me, for the same lyric of a song can bring different meaning to different people. It's really a strange thing to find the meaning of a lyric besides listening to the song, right? Anyway, it's fun!

Hope u'll enjoy it.

Referance: http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=796