For my delight
Swift as the wind flies
His chariot and wings
Shine in the light of a thousand suns
For he comes from the land of no night
He comes from the land of no night

There is no land
The night is all around my child
You must stop imagining all this
You must stop imagining all this
For your own good
Why don't you go with the rest and play downstairs

Closing my eyes
I see him so clear
The blood on his sword
Flashes so bright as is
Falls to the skulls by his feet

But his eyes they know all things
His eyes they know all

There is no blood
No-one knows all my child
You must stop imagining all this
You must stop imagining all this
For your own good
Why don't you go with the rest and play downstairs

Swift as the wind
Stay if you will now
Seeing you again will be in your castle so fair
But I make take some time on the way
And I may have to spend some time downstairs

Overall Meaning

The Incredible String Band's song "Swift as the Wind" portrays the imaginative world of a child who is visited by a chariot rider. The child sees the rider's chariot and wings shining in the light of a thousand suns and imagines him coming from the land of no night. As the child's imagination runs wild, the rider's sword sheds blood and falls to the skulls by his feet, but his all-knowing eyes offer comfort to the child. However, the child's mother intervenes and asks her child to stop imagining and play downstairs like the others.

The lyrics of the song Swift as the Wind have two layers of interpretation. On the one hand, it is a song that represents the innocence and imaginative world of a child that undergoes the intervention and suppression of their imagination by an adult figure. The child sees a world of magic in the rider, but the mother wants to suppress it to protect her child from what she believes are dangerous illusions. On the other hand, the song can be seen as a metaphorical representation of the conflict between imagination and reality, where the rider with the chariot and bloodshed sword represents the fanciful world of imagination, and the mother's intervention symbolizes a return to harsh reality.

Line by Line Meaning

For my delight
This is for my pleasure

Swift as the wind flies
He is moving very fast like the wind

His chariot and wings
He has a vehicle and wings to fly

Shine in the light of a thousand suns
They are radiating and dazzling brightly

For he comes from the land of no night
He comes from a place where there is no night

He comes from the land of no night
He comes from a place where there is no night

There is no land
There is no such place

The night is all around my child
Darkness is everywhere, my child

You must stop imagining all this
You need to stop thinking like this

For your own good
It's for your benefit

Why don't you go with the rest and play downstairs
Why don't you join the others and play downstairs?