Black
Pearl Jam Lyrics

Hey, oh
An expression of sadness and despair

Sheets of empty canvas
A metaphor for the blankness of his life after the end of his relationship

Untouched sheets of clay
Another metaphor for the blankness of his life after the end of his relationship

Were laid spread out before me
The emptiness of his life was evident

As her body once did
He remembers her physical presence before the end of their relationship

All five horizons
He was fully enchanted and consumed by her

Revolved around her soul
She was the center of his universe

As the earth to the sun
A further demonstration of how her soul was the center around which he revolved

Now the air I tasted and breathed
All the good things in life, that once gave him happiness and meaning, now feel different

Has taken a turn
The change was so drastic that his life changed directions

Oh and all I taught her was everything
He invested his all in the relationship

Oh I know she gave me all that she wore
She too invested her all in the relationship

And now my bitter hands
Hands that are embittered by the experience of heartache

Chafe beneath the clouds
The weight of the clouds feels unbearable

Of what was everything
What was once everything to him is now meaningless

Oh the pictures have
Memories of the past, once captured in photos

All been washed in black
A metaphor for how the end of the relationship coloured everything with sadness and grief

Tattooed everything
His life is irrevocably marked by the experience of heartache

I take a walk outside
A desperate attempt to escape his feelings

I'm surrounded by
Around him life goes on as normal

Some kids at play
The world continues living happily despite his despair

I can feel their laughter
He can hear their laughter but he can't feel it

So why do I sear
A rhetorical question expressing his frustration

Oh, and twisted thoughts that spin
A metaphor for his dark thoughts

Round my head
His thoughts are all-consuming

I'm spinning
He is overwhelmed and disoriented

Oh, I'm spinning
He repeats himself to emphasize his feeling of being lost

How quick the sun can
A metaphor for the fleetingness of happiness

Drop away
How quickly his happiness left him

And now my bitter hands
Hands that are still embittered by the experience of heartache

Cradle broken glass
A metaphor for how broken he is

Of what was everything
Everything that was once meaningful to him is now broken

All the pictures had
Memories of the past, once cherished in photos

All been washed in black
A metaphor for how everything in his life is coated in sadness and grief

Tattooed everything
His pain has left a permanent mark on his life

All the love gone bad
Their once passionate love has turned into something heart breaking

Turned my world to black
The end of their relationship has made his world bleak and colourless

Tattooed all I see
His pain has tainted how he sees the world

All that I am
His pain has fundamentally changed who he is

All I'll be
His pain has fundamentally changed who he will be

Yeah
An acknowledgement of the veracity of his feelings

I know someday you'll have a beautiful life
He had hoped that she would find happiness

I know you'll be a star
He knows that she'll achieve great things

In somebody else's sky
She'll find love and happiness someplace else

But why
He wonders why he couldn't give her a beautiful life

Why
He repeats his rhetorical question

Why can't it be
He wishes that it could have worked out between them

Why can't it be mine
He wishes that he could have been the one to give her a beautiful life