Silence

Silence...

“People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices...”

This is a prophetic song. These days you see two people sitting in a park but each one is busy with the phone. One talks with a person who is far away, but one fails to speak to the neighbour. How many times we hear and not listen.

How often people like music to be always by their side: study, games, rest, meals, sleep, and in personal rooms. Is there fear of silence? Does silence make one in touch with himself or herself? 

Simon and Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of singer-songwriter Paul Simon and singer Art Grafunkel. They were one of the most popular groups of the 1960s, and were viewed as counterculture icons of the decade’s social revolution, alongside artists such as the Beatles and Bob Dylan.

This song was written in Feb. 1964. Paul Simon took six months to write the lyrics, which are about man’s lack of communication with his fellow man. He averaged one line a day.

The song contains right words and right melody. It is worth spending in contemplating the depth in those very fine lines.

Here are the lines of the song:  

"The Sound Of Silence"

Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains Within the sound of silence.

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
'Neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night And touched the sound of silence.

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared Disturb the sound of silence.

"Fools," said I, "You do not know –
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you.
Take my arms that I might reach you."
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming.
And the sign said, The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls And tenement halls
And whispered in the sound of silence.  

(Thank You Friar Sidney J. Mascarenhas for sharing with me this inspiring song.)