Slowly Goes the Night
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Lyrics

Darling, that morning you chose to go
My beloved, the day you left me was a choice you made willingly

I awoke in my boots and clothes
I woke up fully dressed that morning, telling you that I never expected you to leave me

You dig in my cards, stole all my cash
You rummaged through my belongings and took all my money

Even my five-hundred dollar suit was slashed
You even damaged my expensive suit in your haste to leave

And I just lay there watching the sun fall down from the sky
After you left, I lay there staring at the sky as the sun started to set

Not wanting to open the letter
I didn't have the desire to read the letter you left me

But opening it anyway
But eventually, I gave in and opened the letter

And seeing those two words
And reading the two painful words you wrote

Lover, lover, goodbye
You addressed me as your lover and bid me goodbye

So slowly goes the night
The night moves by at an unbearably slow pace

Next to me lies your body
Although you left me, your body still lies next to mine

Laying like the map of some forbidden land
Your body is as mysterious and forbidden as an uncharted map

I trace the ghosts of your bones
With trembling hands, I trace the outline of your bones as if they were ghosts

With my trembling hand
My hand trembles as I trace your bones

Dark is my night
My world is filled with darkness

And darker is my day yeah
Even my day is filled with gloom and darkness

I must've been blind
Looking back, I must have been blind to not see the signs of our relationship's demise

Out of my mind
I was insane to have missed the indicators of the end of our union

I never, never saw the warning signs
I foolishly ignored and missed all the signs preceding your departure

How goes it?
How am I doing?

It goes lonely
I'm feeling lonely

It goes slowly
Time seems to drag on and go by slowly

Ten lonely days, ten lonely nights
I've been without your company, love, for ten whole days and ten long nights

Come on
Let's go

I watch the moon get flayed each night
I observe the moon's transformation each night

Until the moon becomes the skinning knife
The moon becomes a sharp edge to remove my skin, revealing my sins

The skins of my sins I send to cover and comfort you
I give you every part of me, including my wrongdoings, hoping it may heal you from the pain I've caused

I know of a Heaven
Although I've done wrong, I still believe in heaven

Oh, but honey I know of a Hell, yeah
Unfortunately, I know the depths of hell and have experienced its torment

I hang my head
In shame and sadness, I lower my head

I toss in my bed
Unable to sleep with the anguish of your sudden departure, I toss and turn in bed

One evening, I'm leaving
You warned me of your impending departure

And I laughed and checked her breathing
I thought it was a joke and even checked if you had stopped breathing

And said darling
Then, with tenderness, I addressed you as 'darling'

Oh, go slowly through the night
I'm begging you to take your time leaving at night

Oh baby, I feel the heal of time
In time, my wounds will begin to mend

And it hurts
At this moment, though, the pain is still unbearable

I wake to find you sitting right there
I awaken to the image of you still sitting next to me

Cutting tangles out of your hair
You're removing tangles from your hair as if you never left

Singing a song that's all wrong
But then, you begin to sing a tune incorrectly

Hey, but that's alright, I don't care
But, despite the mistake, I do not mind and embrace your presence

Oh, I'm sorry
I regret how things turned out

For all the misery, yeah
I'm sorry for the pain that befell us

I reach out and embrace an empty space
I try to hold you again but all I find is an empty space

A song that slowly slowly fades
The song of our relationship slowly fades away

Where goes it?
Where does our relationship go?

It goes some place
It's unclear where our relationship is heading

It goes somewhere, where it's lonely
Our mutual path leads to loneliness

And black as the night
The darkness we face is comparable to the blackest night

Let's put things right, put things right
Let's reconcile and mend what we once had

I hang my head and cry cry cry
I cry uncontrollably, head down in despair

Darling, all night I try
Throughout the entire night, I tried to make sense of our relationship's ending

To cease on a reason for this mad mad season
I search for an explanation for the madness that has taken over our lives

The nights, the nights they are so long now
The nights feel never-ending

I can't remember being in light
The darkness has been with us for so long that I don't even remember the light

Call it sleep, call it death, call it what you like
This darkness might be called sleep, death, or anything else one might desire to call it

But only sleep, dear
But rest, dear one

Only sleep brings you back to life, yeah
Only through rest can we revive ourselves

Well, I'm going, baby, slowly slowly going
It's time for me to move on slowly

And we both know that it's gonna be alright
We both understand that everything will eventually be okay

But it ain't you that has to cry cry cry
Still, I'm the one who has to go through the pain and the tears

Ten lonely days, ten lonely nights
Ten days and ten nights of loneliness have passed since you walked away from me