Interpreting "YES" Lyrics

[Mal12345]

What do these lyrics mean, if anything?

A man conceived a moment's answers to the dream
Staying the flowers daily, sensing all the themes
As a foundation left to create the spiral aim
A movement regained and regarded both the same
All complete in the sight of seeds of life with you
Changed only for a sight of sound, the space agreed
Between the picture of time behind the face of need
Coming quickly to terms of all expression laid
Emotion revealed as the ocean maid
All complete in the sight of seeds of life with you
Oh
(Turn round tailor)
Coins and
(Assaulting all the mornings of the)
Crosses
(Interest shown)
Never know
(Presenting one another to the cord)
Their fruitless worth
(All left dying, rediscovered)
Cords are broken
(Of the door that turned round)
Locked inside
(To close the cover)
The mother earth
(All the interest shown)
They won't
(To turn one another, to the sign)
Hide, hold, they won't
(At the time)
Tell you, watching the world
(To float your climb)
Watching all of the world
Watching us go by
And you and I climb over the sea to the valley
And you and I reached out for reasons to call
Coming quickly to terms of all expression laid
Emotion revealed as the ocean maid
As a movement regained and regarded both the same
All complete in the side of seeds of life with you
Sad preacher nailed upon the coloured door of time
Insane teacher be there reminded of the rhyme
There'll be no mutant enemy we shall certify
Political ends, as sad remains, will die
Reach out as forward tastes begin to enter you
Ooh, ooh
I listened hard but could not see
Life tempo change out and inside me
The preacher trained in all to lose his name
The teacher travels, asking to be shown the same
In the end, we'll agree, we'll accept, we'll immortalize
That the truth of the man maturing in his eyes
All complete in the sight of seeds of life with you
Coming quickly to terms of all expression laid
As a moment regained and regarded both the same
Emotion revealed as the ocean maid
A clearer future, morning, evening, nights with you
And you and I climb, crossing the shapes of the morning
And you and I reach over the sun for the river
And you and I climb, clearer, towards the movement
And you and I called over valleys of endless seas

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Do "Starship Trooper"!

 

[Hiraeth]

Not sure, but I'm assuming it's about a man and his eternal love for his woman. At least that's the overall picture I am getting. Whatever the case, this song and album in particular are one of the few I've really enjoyed by this band. I haven't listened to many, but this reminded me to give them a try again, especially since I do hold great admiration and respect for certain prog bands.

 

[Mal12345]

Not sure, but I'm assuming it's about a man and his eternal love for his woman. At least that's the overall picture I am getting. Whatever the case, this song and album in particular are one of the few I've really enjoyed by this band. I haven't listened to many, but this reminded me to give them a try again, especially since I do hold great admiration and respect for certain prog bands.

Perhaps the word "you" is plural. If so, then how does that change your theory?

 

[Mal12345]

"As a foundation left to create the spiral aim" is a reference to Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy.

The "mutant enemy" is a possible reference to a character in the second book of that trilogy.

 

[Mal12345]

Not sure, but I'm assuming it's about a man and his eternal love for his woman. At least that's the overall picture I am getting. Whatever the case, this song and album in particular are one of the few I've really enjoyed by this band. I haven't listened to many, but this reminded me to give them a try again, especially since I do hold great admiration and respect for certain prog bands.

The text in my signature
"Did you exchange
A walk-on part in the war
for a lead role in a cage?"
comes from a progressive band song.

 

[Mal12345]

Lyric correction:
"And you and I called over valleys of endless seas" should be "And you and I crawled over valleys of endless seas"

 

[Hiraeth]

Perhaps the word "you" is plural. If so, then how does that change your theory?

In that case it might be something more abstract than I'm aware of. Some form of enlightenment from whatever the narrator is referring to is a possibility.

Unless you are merely asking members here out of curiosity, there's a site dedicated to this sort of thing that includes other people's interpretations of the song here:

Yes - And You And I Lyrics | SongMeanings

Seems like many also interpret this song as a kind of love song.

The text in my signature
"Did you exchange
A walk-on part in the war
for a lead role in a cage?"
comes from a progressive band song.

"Wish You Were Here".....nice.

 

[Mal12345]

In that case it might be something more abstract than I'm aware of. Some form of enlightenment from whatever the narrator is referring to is a possibility.

Unless you are merely asking members here out of curiosity, there's a site dedicated to this sort of thing that includes other people's interpretations of the song here:

Yes - And You And I Lyrics | SongMeanings

Seems like many also interpret this song as a kind of love song.

"Wish You Were Here".....nice.

I've learned to be skeptical about online lyrics interpretations. But I found this page to be very cogent about it:
On a Methodology for Interpreting Jon Anderson's "And You and I" by Alan Gullette
Then again, the link above is for a student paper written for a grade, so the author took a little time and effort in interpreting the lyrics based on a methodology he developed especially for Yes lyrics. People who are posting to online forums typically don't put very much effort into their posts (as can be seen all over this forum).

I believe the lyrics mean whatever we want them to mean. I don't believe Jon Anderson (who wrote or co-wrote the lyrics) necessarily wanted there to be a singular, inherent interpretation, but that he believed all interpretations are based on whatever meaning the individual puts into them. If you say it's a love poem, then that's the meaning that works for you.

I agree that attempting to pursue a line-by-line, or even word-by-word, interpretation is fruitless. For example, upon asking Jon Anderson what he means by the word "movement," he simply says "life," a very generic term lacking substantive context. Now for me, even the mere word "life" explodes into several conceptual possibilities including even the idea of Karma. And I believe that's Jon Anderson's intent, in that people are going to come up with their own ideas thus becoming active participants in the poetic process.