The Legend

May 23rd, 2005

One of my favourite tracks on F.I.R.’s latest album isn’t really a song at all; in fact, I’m not sure how to describe it. It reminds me of a read-a-long story set to some medieval-sounding music, or at least what medieval music sounds like in the movies. A little like the Fable demo that was online before the game came out.

Long ago, there was a bird who sang but just once in her life
From the moment she left the nest
she searched relentlessly for a thorn tree
never resting until she found one
Then she began to sing
more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth
But, carried away in the rapture of the song
she impaled herself on the longest, sharpest thorn
But as she was dying
she rose above her own agony to outsing even the lark and the nightingale
The thorn bird traded her life for that one song and
the whole world was captivated to listen!
And God, in His heaven, smiled upon her
As her very best was brought out only at the cost of great pain
Driven by the thorn, with no thought for her death to come

But when we push the thorn into our breast
We know …
We understand …
And still … we choose the pain of the thorn …

The title is “The Legend 傳說” and it’s beautiful in a sad way. Right now, I’m just puzzled over its meaning. The last few lines, especially.

Is the song suggesting that great beauty can be born of great pain? Or that it’s stupid to subject ourselves to something like that?

Wasn’t she outsinging “the lark and the nightingale” even before she pierced herself with the thorn? (Unless nightingales and larks aren’t “creatures on the face of the earth”, but that’s even less likely.)

Oh, and isn’t there some reference to larks and nightingales in Romeo and Juliet?

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3 Responses to “The Legend”

Tara Says:

You ask good questions. I have not heard the song, but the little story is pretty. It reminds me of Jesus: he wore a crown of thorns while he beautifully died on the cross for us.

Anyway… I don’t know. That “creatures on the face of the earth” thing vs “lark and the nightengale” is a bit puzzling. Perhaps the second is just an emphasis of how very, very beautiful her dying song was.

And I think the song is speaking about how truest beauty is born in pain.

May 26th, 2005 at 7:48 pm

JasonDJ4 Says:

Thorn bird only sings when she finds a thorn tree… That is to say the only opportunity for her to sing is when “she” finally found a thorn tree (opportunity). She had searched for it ever since she was able to fly. Once it’s found, she would sing sweeter than any other creature on the face of the earth, because she was content. Yet life/fate as it may seem, adversity existed because of our happiness. A long and sharp thorn pierced through her body. But …not her soul! She won’t allow herself to pull out and escape away from the thorn; rather she absorbs the pain to sing even more grandly. So splendid, God smiled (b/c her very best was brought out only at the cost of great pain). Her adversity cannot control her, yet she used it to make her stronger, braver, and more gallant. She knew what made her happy. She realized her opportunity is a gift. She cannot waste her only opportunity on her agony. Instead, she belittled Death, and gave all her life to that one song. She didn’t regret anything. Her death becomes her happiness …for eternity.

How many people can endure such pain? How many people would prefer to die for what s/he loves? Of course we know, and we understand it’s hard… but, we still gave up, and choose to feel the pain of the thorn, than to die for what we have been given the opportunity to do.

June 25th, 2005 at 6:48 pm

nicole Says:

Who is this song by? I had originally read what was posted about about the Thorn Bird in the book the “Thorn Birds” published in the 70’s

March 3rd, 2006 at 1:08 am