WaRpEd & TwIsTeD

SOUNDS OF SILENCE (Simon & Garfunkel)

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 alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
‘Neath 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 night
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 dares
Disturb the sound of silence.

"Fools," 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 wells 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 sign said, "The words of the prophets
are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls."
And whispered in the sounds of silence.

Despite the fact that I wasn’t able to give a sensible explanation of what this song means during an exam in Literature back in fourth year high school, I must admit that this is one of my all-time favorite songs. It’s a classic in its own right. There is something in the song that always catches my fancy, especially the 3rd and 4th stanzas.
   
   
Being an introspective individual (except when I am with people whom I feel very comforatble with.. you’re lucky if you’re one of them… it only means I enjoy and value your company) I have often enjoyed the warmth brought about by silence. I am comfortable in it. In those moments I am able to think things over, evaluate the repercussions of things that I’ve done, and plot out my next  gameplan. I have been labelled as aloof, cold, indifferent, sometimes even autistic because of my silence. I just laugh at these comments. Obviously, these are the folks who "talk without speaking" and "hear without listening". Perhaps it never crossed their minds that at times, their loudness exposes their ignorance and the lowliness of their thinking.  That sometimes, silence allows one to cover what one doesn’t know, thus hiding the tendency to look stupid in public. And intelligence is not always measured by the volume or tone of our voices, nor by the flamboyance in the delivery. Instead, it is measured on how much sense is in the message’s content, even if only a few words were spoken.
   
   
So to all of those who mock the silence of people like me, I pity you. Our silence doesn’t mean we are bowing and conceding. We just don’t want to jump in and join in the bandwagon of people talking nonsense. The world is filled with noise pollution, why add to it? Our silence doesn’t mean we know less. We just don’t stoop down to your level of thinking. We have already achieved much in our silence, we don’t have to flaunt it using words. Let our actions speak of what we have accomplished. Can you now hear the sounds of silence? Enough said.

~ by altered-aura on January 31, 2008.