Small Song
Lhasa Lyrics

The first thing that comes to mind when listening to "Small Song" by Lhasa de Sela is its simplicity. As the title suggests, this is "a small song," intimate and vulnerable in its delivery. The lyrics reflect this sense of minimalism, with just a couple of lines repeated throughout the entire song. Yet, despite its brevity, there is an unassuming beauty to it that lingers long after the last notes have faded away.

The singer starts the song by declaring that she has made "a small, small song" that she sang "all night long" through wind and rain until the morning came. The repetitive structure of the song emphasizes the persistence of her singing, as if it were an act of endurance. She then repeats the same lines, adding that the song is hers alone and that, despite singing it all night long, she had to start all over again when morning came. This repetition creates a sense of circularity, as if the small song were a never-ending cycle of creation and destruction.

The second verse of the song continues this theme of smallness, with the singer acknowledging the limitations of her song. She describes it as "so so small" that she could "crawl searching from wall to wall and never see anything at all," highlighting the fragility of her creation. Yet, despite its size, the singer defends her song's worth, asking how anyone could hate "such a small song." She ends the song with a touch of ambiguity, admitting that "if I was right, I would be wrong." It's as if she is acknowledging the subjective nature of art and the difficulty of creating something that will please everyone.