Swimming Horses Lyrics
In your arms, in your arms
Fish on a line, learns to live on
Dry land
Thrown back again to drown
Kinder with poison
Then pushed down the well
Or a face burnt to hell
Feel the cruel stones
Breaking her bones
Dead before born
Words fall in ruins
But no sound
She's dying of your shame
She's maimed by your pain
He gives birth to swimming horses
He gives birth to swimming horses
Fish on a line
Walking on dry land
But back in the water to drown
We drown
Floating in sky
He gives birth to swimming horses
Take a ride on the tide
With the assassin at your side
The weightlessness underwater
Forgets in slow motion
And watches pointless tortures
He gives birth to swimming horses
He gives birth to swimming horses
Floating in sky
Like fishes can fly
Through your arms
About
In a 1992 interview with Melody Maker, Siouxsie Sioux explained the meaning behind the song:
“This is based on a programme I saw about a female version of Amnesty, called ‘Les Sentinelles’. They rescue women who are trapped in certain religious climates in the Middle East, religions that view any kind of pre-marital sexual aspersion as punishable by death – either by the hand of the eldest brother in the family, or by public stoning. And there was this instance of a woman whose daughter had developed a tumour, and, of course, gossip abounded that she was pregnant. The doctor who removed the tumour allowed her to take it back to the village to prove that, no, it wasn’t a baby – but they wouldn’t believe her. The woman knew her daughter would have to be stoned to death so she poisoned her, out of kindness, to save her from a worse fate. Now this organisation has all these escape routes for women like her, mainly through the elder brother who pretends to have killed them. But once they’ve been saved, they can never go back. So the song starts, "Kinder than with poison…” I also used the imagery of “He gives birth to swimming horses”, from the fact that male sea horses give birth to the children, so they’re the only species that have a maternal feel for the young. It was, I suppose, an abstract way of linking it all together without being sensationalist. I remember just being really moved by that programme, and wanting to get the sorrow out of me."
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 1.Dazzle
- 2.We Hunger
- 3.Take Me Back
- 4.Belladonna
- 5.Swimming Horses
- 8.Running Town