Fish and Bird

So I'm still a bit haunted by that Island of Dolls in Mexico. Since that trip I can't seem to get a particular song out of my head. The song is "Fish and Bird" from the album Alice
by Tom Waits.
Originally this music was created for Robert Wilson's opera of the same name. It is the Alice in Wonderland story, which to me, has always been a bit disturbing anyway. It is sinister, to be certain, but it also about madness, loneliness, and the struggle of separate worlds trying to meet.

The Isla de las Munecas relates to this tale in a variety of ways but first let me explain my interpretation of that haunting place. It is the saddest yet simultaneously sweetest place I have ever been. To recap the story, this is a place that young girl drowns and years later is inhabited by a hermit, who senses her ghost. He proceeds to appease her spirit by collecting dolls for years and years, which he hangs up all over the island.

When I was on the island I couldn't help feeling that this whole island was an act of love....not out of fear. It seemed to me that the hermit, Don Julian had a psychological relationship with this spirit (real or imagined it doesn't really matter). His life was devoted to someone that he had never met, at least, not in the traditional sense. Nonetheless he creates this strange realm for her to play. There is a relationship between he and this ghost. Perhaps, being reclusive, this was an easier relationship for him to deal with. Decades they were together on this island and who knows what conversations existed between the two. It is a sad relationship in that it is world separated by vast distances...the distance between the living and the dead. I have no opinion whether the little girl's ghost is real or imagined...to me it doesn't matter. She was real enough to Don Julian. Back to the song that keeps going through my head...."Fish and Bird". I know that Tom Waits is not everyone's cup of tea but he has been a huge inspiration to my work, in particular, Black Rider
(another theatrical collaboration with Robert Wilson.. a Faustian tale). Some people can't get beyond his harsh vocals, but for me it is heightens the carnival/alice-in-wonderland/maddening/heartfelt, aspect of his songs. Here are the lyrics to Fish and Bird:

They bought a round for the sailor
And they heard his tale
Of a world that was so far away
And a song that we'd never heard
A song of a little bird
That fell in love with a whale

He said, 'You cannot live in the ocean'
And she said to him
'You never can live in the sky'
But the ocean is filled with tears
And the sea turns into a mirror
There's a whale in the moon when it's clear
And a bird on the tide

Please don't cry
Let me dry your eyes

So tell me that you will wait for me
Hold me in your arms
I promise we never will part
I'll never sail back to the time
But I'll always pretend you're mine
Though I know that we both must part
You can live in my heart

Please don't cry
Let me dry your eyes

And tell me that you will wait for me
Hold me in your arms
I promise we never will part
I'll never sail back to the time
But I'll always pretend that you're mine
I know that we both must part
You can live in my heart

I have to say, I do know a little something about relationships that span vast distances, so it could be that I'm easily touched by these types of tales.