Smile At Death
Before we start, I’d like to say, that everything will be posted on the official social media pages piece by piece with some additions in course of time. So, be sure to subscribe to one of the Tragedy In Hope social media pages. All links can be found here, on the official Bandcamp page.

The lyrics will be decoded almost line by line and all little details of the main artwork will be explained in the following text. Who are the characters on the single’s artwork is explained in the merch description.
So, if you are as nerdy as me, I wish you to have it nice and cozy wherever you are now, here we go.

“Annoying buzz of summer flies
And pied wings of butterflies
Were pierced by heavy threads of rain,
This sunny day was colored grey.
They were young and hopeless madmen
Whose dreams shone bright like crystal glass,
But life which knew no real sadness
Ended like grains in an hourglass.”

The first thing, which jumps out at you, is season changing. Autumn slowly approaches and summer flies as well as butterflies die, days become rainy and gloomy, clouds obscure the sun. So, is it another song about death of summer? Not really. It is a metaphor. The following four lines are connected to the first four lines for a reason. These two quatrains are each other’s reflection. There were people, who were young and naïve, but once their autumn came, carefree life passed by like grains in an hourglass or days of youth in other words. Youth in this context can be understood as recklessness, when you have nothing to lose and when you are ready to put your heart on the line. A person can be young and fresh even at sixty as well as old and spiritless at his/her early twenties. Also, there are ugly flies and pied winged butterflies among us, aren’t there? And everyone can have “sunny” mood as well as “rainy” one, filled with heavy thoughts (threads of rain).

“Dead memories mixed with bitter tears
Is the tastiest thing.
How to get rid of bad thoughts?
Well, first of all, burn them all!”

When “youth” passes by, there are only memories of the past left. I bet, most of us have these days, when we happily reminisce the past, thinking how airily it was back in the days, but feeling depressed in the same time, because it can’t be returned. When a person stays in the past for too long and time slips by, it makes him/her stagnate, procrastinate and accomplish nothing as a result. These bad thoughts gnaw from the inside. This is inevitable, everybody’s autumn will come sooner or later. So, how to stay “young” even by being old? Not to live in the past and to be opened for new things, opportunities. The only way out is to burn all the bad thoughts and go further despite everything.

“I am suffocating and slowly melting
In dancing tongues of fire.
When death send me an air-kiss
I answer with a smile.”

The problem is the more experience you have, the harder, more painful to get rid of all these memories of the past, to have willingness to jump into the deep end. When you try to get rid of them, to burn them all, the smog makes you suffocate and tongues of fire, as if mocking at you, burn you from the inside, making you slowly melt, lose consciousness. These tongues are literally killing you, because, as paradoxical as it may sound, there is no future without past.
Death approaches by sending an air-kiss. The air-kiss in this context is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, you desperately need a gulp of fresh air (stop fighting at least for a moment), but this gulp will make fire burn wilder. On the other hand, if you don’t take this gulp (continue to fight), you’ll die of suffocation (burn out).
The answer is a smile. For death smile means vagueness, as if you try to overplay it, mock at it in return. It doesn’t know what to wait for from you, what the next step will be. It is a game for both sides of a conflict. When you’re saying: “Take me, if you can”, death answers: “Oh, do you think I can’t?”
The boy, who stands in the middle of the street, represents a madman, whose dream shines bright, like crystal glass. He is young, not experienced, but stands in the middle of the creepy town ready for anything. With heavy steps, but tranquil breath he treads towards new and undiscovered.

"I wanna try it. Can it cut?"
Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut
She longed for human warmth too long
I hope she knocked on heaven's door”

Some people can’t get through persistent bombardment of rain threads and loneliness. It is too cold and their ember (hope) dies out. In attempt to soothe inner pain, to get rid of bad thoughts at least somehow, instead of setting long burning fire (to continue carrying an ember), it comes to self-harm. Sometimes it ends up bad.
Bob Dylan once said: “I feel like I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door”. The girl, one of the main characters of this song, didn’t manage to overplay death in a long run and there was no one to help her. So, I hope the girl, knocked on the door after all. You can see her as a child and as a grown up person at the single’s artwork.
The sad thing is, there is no heaven. The girl supposed to stand near the boy on the main artwork. They could represent hopeless madmen together, but she was burned in “Крематорий” (eng. Crematory), which called heaven. It is drawn with blueish letters, as well as red “Heaven” near it, in the middle of the main artwork. Also, it’s important to mention, a girl and a boy are just archetypes. Anyone can relate to their situation.

“Black swans sang a lullaby
And smell of sadness made him high,
But he was a zealous fighter
With eyes of the tiger.”

Even if swans start singing a farewell song and everything is against you, smell of sadness can become the thing, which will get you back to life. In other words, the inevitable coming of autumn may cause a feeling of euphoria, when you want to take a challenge and try to overplay death.
The guy, referred to above, set a fire out of his ember in attempt to burn bad thoughts. Even more, he tried to fight this fire by enjoying the fight itself. He fought with ardor, like a tiger.
This is also a reference to the “Eye Of The Tiger” by Survivor. The whole song is about fighting and survival. Just like the character in that song, our character is “just a man, who will to survive” too.
On the main artwork you can find a tiger on the wall of the house on the right side of the street.
On the artwork for single you can find an adult guy with a black eye. The fight isn’t always that easy.

“Inner screams, frustration,
Agony, depression
Tease vivid imagination.
How to get rid of bad thoughts?
Well, first of all, burn them all!”

A weep in temptation, in sweet anticipation
To hear the answer to the question.
How to get rid of bad thoughts?
Well, first of all, burn them all!”

I guess here is no need to explain much. These lines seems to be clear.

“Water drops were wet and cold,
Embers glowed both red and gold.
It was a rainy day
They were young and blazed
With dreams about carefree life,
But they just flew in lofty skies.”

“Water drops” = “heavy threads of rain” = “bad thoughts”. “Embers” = “inner hope”.
Again, these six lines are connected to each other for a reason. As it was in the first octave lines, the first two and the following four lines are each other’s reflection. It was a rainy day, that’s why there were water drops. They were young and blazed (both red and gold), where red and gold = dreams about carefree life.
There was written in the beginning, that there was a sunny day, but then clouds obscured the sun. There were summer flies and pied winged butterflies, which appeared to be hopeless madmen, who flew in lofty skies. In other words, they flew ABOVE clouds, in their dreams, bathing in sunrays, which means, there always were clouds beneath them, but they had never paid attention to it. They didn’t look down, thinking that sunrays would always warm them. They didn’t see the real world under the clouds, but once their autumn came, which means, that their youth (= willingness to put a heart on the line) passed by, when they couldn’t fly above clouds anymore, they were compelled to fly down, where they found themselves under never-ending threads of rain.
The only way to feel warm again is to set the inner fire, to learn how to warm yourself from the inside despite cold water drops. Only a true madman can keep hoping on something, when everything is dark and gloomy, when it never stops raining. Only a true madman can keep an ember inside, hoping to set a big fire out of it one day.
It doesn’t matter who you are, just an ugly fly or a beautiful butterfly, if you carry an inner ember and smile at death, like a true madman, you’ll get through everything sooner or later.
Thus, this is a song about inner clash of uncertainty about the future and willingness to overplay the death itself, when your hopes and aspirations are slowly dying under the pressure of rationality, circumstances and life experience, but your heart desperately fights with the harsh reality in spite of everything.

“Sad face”.

Sad face. That’s the only thing that can be said about all written above, because hope is good, but to have something here and now is better. However, here is some interesting thought, there are a lot of words about sunny, rainy days in this text… but what about the night? Look at the upper right corner. There is the moon, which is wiping its tear away with the notorious clouds ;)
____________________________________