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 dare
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 sounds of silence.
I was blessed with a really fun experience last Sunday, and that was being on the jury of a music competition hosted every year by my school, Studium Szkola Jenzykowa (Studium School of Languages). This competition allows students to learn songs from the language and also any other dramatic performance along with that and perform it before an audience. It was really fun to see some of “my” students perform and to listen to/ see the rendition of the songs they had learned. Many of the songs were fairly meaningless pop songs and the younger ones had learned kiddie songs but to watch each person interpret their song was fantastic. I feel like I can learn so much from their body language about what they think about the song, how much they understood the lyrics of what they were singing, and how much they have been coerced into a “style” of performing or not. I find certain styles of voice modulating and breathiness in the singing to be pretty distasteful. It is a learned performance habit and it is not genuine at all. One particular performer almost sent me into an hysterical bout with laughter because their voice sounded identical to someone speaking on high-dubbing. You know. The kind that sounds like a really excited version of the Chipmunks, where all the words shimmer in their fevered-pitch and the voice is projected with more of an electronic than human vocal sound. But this particular voice was really “sighing/ breathy” too and so it made for a really hilarious combination in my opinion. It was not the performers fault though. I think that they were probably taught to sing that way. I especially enjoyed handing out the awards to the winners in the children’s category. One of the little girls, who actually had won first place, sat near the front of the auditorium and kept smacking her little fist into the palm of her hand. I think that she knew she had done a good job or at least her best, and she looked up with pleading eyes that just begged to be chosen. She must have been six or seven. Her anticipation had to wade through the grueling moments as the second and third place winners were announced in her category. I thought she would crumple under the excruciating tension. But, joy of joys, her name was announced and she was up onto the stage in a few hops. When I handed her the award, she looked up into my eyes and said: “Thank you, sir” in perfect English. It was beautiful.
One of the songs that was sang did really impress me alot. The “Sound of Silence”. The girl who sang it really powerfully interpreted its meaning through her style. When Paul Simon wrote that song, I am not sure that he knew the power in the words that he had used to craft it, but it has spoken to me. I think that many people may wonder what this song means. I wonder also, but I think that it speaks very deeply to the human problem of communication; the lack of communication. The lack of love. The song talks about neon lights stabbing the sound of silence. It says ” People writing songs that voices never share and no one dare
disturb the sound of silence.” Silence is something that grows like a cancer and even when there is a shout of desperation to know and to have relationship, it is lost in the sound of silence. So, we can follow the progression from the idea of silence reigning to some difference, a startling difference, being made through the eerie glow of a neon sign. This is an attempt to communicate through written words only. But then, songs are written. Songs that communicate words and ideas, but they are never sung by voices because people are afraid/ bound by silence. Silence becomes personified. We do not want to “mess” with silence because it might become angry that it is crossed. The songs moves on and says that “people bow before the neon God’s they’ve made”. That is interesting to me because I know that the written word is the safest and easiest way to “communicate” something to someone. I am doing it right now. However, if it is used for the simple fact of protecting silence and for procrastinating on communicating, it is only causing the silence to grow like a cancer. To divide relationships. Thank you.
