What does Forgiven mean?

Within Temptation: Forgiven Meaning

Album cover for Forgiven album cover

Song Released: 2008


Forgiven Lyrics

Couldn't save you from the start

Love you so it hurts my soul

Can you forgive me for trying again

Your silence makes me hold my breath

Oh, time has passed you by



Ooh, for so long I've tried to shield you from the world

Ooh,...

  1. anonymous
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    Mar 30th 2022 !⃝

    I think it's about two best friends or siblings and one of them died. Personally when I listen to this song I think of all the fallen Celebrities and K9 the dog that was shot well I think that's what happened to the poor little dog.

  2. anonymous
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    Apr 25th 2017 !⃝

    I think that this song is about a mother who overprotected her child so much that he couldn't function in the outside world, and when he was finally able to move out he lacked basic life skills and ended up failing in the real world, leading to him falling into depression and committing suicide. She is forgiving him for all of their fights and for all of the times he resisted her attempts to protect him, which in a horribly tragic way ended up causing his death.

    There is research showing that "helicopter parenting" can cause depression, especially when the children start to live on their own or are at an age when they are expected to. When you can't do anything for yourself as a child, it is much hard to develop self-esteem.

  3. anonymous
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    Jul 13th 2016 !⃝

    I think it's either about someone you love commiting suicide or the loss of a baby... I just think it's that...

  4. anonymous
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    Feb 5th 2016 !⃝

    I have listened to this song several times. I am a mother of three little ones. I don't know if this is what the song is about but now that I think this I cry every time. It is about a suicide, but she says "from the start" she couldn't save them and that she "tired to shield them from the world". I hate to think it but I think she is talking about her child commuting suicide. I wish I had never even considered this senerio but now that it's there it's there...

  5. anonymous
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    Dec 27th 2015 !⃝

    I thought that the song is about someone that known someone who commited suicide but maybe it isn't that negative, maybe it is more like 'Well, he/she/it was going to but was to afraid of the consequences and suffered along for a while until he/she/it changed her point of view and became a happier person.' and the singer is thinking about what if.
    While writing I changed my theorie a bit, the singer could also be the one who found the person killing her/him/itself and saved him/her/it and is asking if this was the right decision and if it wouldn't be better for the person to be dead and if it was okay to interrupt some times.
    What's also possible is some probably too obvious interpretation about two teenage friends whose lifes weren't good, so they wanted to get away from the place the lived but one of them suddenly disappeared and the left one is angry that she was left but still hoping her friend would be okay and just selfish, but she also whishes the opposide because she can't handle it that the only person she cared about left her without a word and lied and betrayeld.
    This person is slowly realizing that her friend can't be just gone away and trapped in an inner conflict.
    (I know this doesn't fit 100 % to the song e.g. "couldn't safe you from the start" but the game 'life is strange' left its trace on me)

  6. anonymous
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    Dec 17th 2013 !⃝

    I never really could form the meaning of this song. I used to think it was about the sterotypical "guy leaves girl" scenario, however, my idea has drastically changed. My dad commited sucide not long ago, and he had been battling his depression for a long time, and eventually he "gave up the fight" and "left me behind". I love his so much that it eats away at me from the inside. "Here I'm left in silence" because I will never understand fully why he did it. Even though it hurts, makes me angry, makes me sad, "all that's done is forgiven"

  7. anonymous
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    Nov 13th 2012 !⃝

    This song is about someone talking to someone else who committed suicide.

    They had known that something was wrong, and they couldn't do anything to help. They had tried to protect the person from everything, because they knew that the person couldn't face the world alone. But it didn't work and now they're left alone in silence.

    The chorus says that the person gave up trying and left them behind, but they can't be angry at the person because they know the person will always be with them.

    The second verse says that nothing can make the world better now that the person is gone. But again, they had always known that it was going to go wrong. The person was trying to get away from their inner demons.

    The bridge shows a slightly different side, saying that they're still angry at the person. They don't know what to do without the person by their side, and they want to know why the person didn't think about them before. They want to know why they aren't important enough. The last line in the bridge is "Why did you leave me in silence?" I think this line is absolutely heart breaking. It shows that they are so alone without the person, and they're scared.

    But they still forgive the person in the end.

    This is one of my favorite songs, and the first time I heard it, I cried.

  8. anonymous
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    Mar 31st 2012 !⃝

    The girl's saying that she's such a mess. She has made up her mind and she'll walk away for good.

    All apologise for all the troubles, heartaches she cause to someone dearly, all this while she been accused for letting his feeling down (she's not aware of that honestly). She's not good for him and destructive to one another. She knew the guy has found another. Tonight is gonna be their last kiss.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  9. anonymous
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    Mar 30th 2012 !⃝

    The song so simple and touching. The narrator seems to plead the man she loves to not toying her heart again. She let him go and be as free as a bird. She's not the one he needs. Cold hearted witch with reserved, cruel, wicked, evil, everything bad is on her...

    All is forgiven. You have made your choice and don't break her heart...Love is a sacred thing.

  10. anonymous
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    Jul 26th 2011 !⃝

    The song is about someone who you loved and tried to "shield them from the world" so that they wouldn't see what a terrible place it was. But in the end, they gave up. They gave up the fight. The "great escape" is suicide, and they left you in silence. But she is saying that everything that person did is forgiven.

  11. xLifeHasNoLimitx
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    Jun 19th 2010 !⃝

    I think this song is about how in the end, everything will work out. Everyone you had hard times with, everything that went wrong, it will be okay and forgiven in the end. "You gave up the fight, you left me behind. All that's done's forgiven." These lyrics say that someone hurt her, but she forgave them now, time healed the mistakes.


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