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The meaning of the lyrics of the song "Downtown Train" by the artist "Tom Waits"

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In "Downtown Train," Tom Waits paints a picture of urban loneliness and longing for unattainable love. The lyrical hero observes the night city illuminated by a "yellow moon" that seems to pierce the darkness. He sees girls from Brooklyn on the train, striving to escape their loneliness, but realizes that none of them can fill the void in his heart.

He compares the girls to "thorns of roses without their owners" – beautiful but prickly, capable of inflicting pain. These images convey disappointment and fatigue from fleeting encounters.

The hero's heart belongs to another, the one he addresses in the song. He dreams of seeing her on the "downtown train" but understands that this is just a fantasy. He knows her house, her street, but all this only intensifies his pain.

In the final verses of the song, the motif of the carnival appears – a place of fleeting entertainment, which is contrasted with real feelings. The hero seems to be watching someone else's happiness, which is inaccessible to him. The image of "rain of shattered dreams" remaining on the departing train conveys the depth of his despair and hopelessness.

Outside another yellow moon

Punched a hole in the nighttime, yes

I climb through the window and down the street

Shining like a new dime

The downtown trains are full with all those Brooklyn girls

They try so hard to break out of their little worlds

You wave your hand and they scatter like crows

They have nothing that will ever capture your heart

Theyr'e just thorns without the rose

Be careful of them in the dark

Oh if I was the one

You chose to be your only one

Oh baby can't you hear me now

Will I see you tonight

On a downtown train

Every night is just the same

You leave me lonely now

I know your window and I know it's late

I know your stairs and your doorway

I walk down your street and past your gate

I stand by the light at the four way

You watch them as they fall

They all have heart attacks

They stay at the carnival

But they'll never win you back

Will I see you tonight

On a downtown train

Where every night is just the same you leave me lonely

Will I see you tonight

On a downtown train

All of my dreams just fall like rain

All upon a downtown train

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