Kamelot: Memento Mori Meaning

Memento Mori Lyrics

Who wants to separate

The world we know from marred beliefs

And who sees only black and white

Distinguish loss from sacrifice

Some day we may come to peace

With the world within ourselves

And I will await you

Until I close my eyes, close...

1. Sherentine

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   Apr 24th 2011 !⃝

   Memento Mori is the last part of a musical series based on Goethe's famous work "Faust". It features the main characters that have occured so far; the troubled alchemist Ariel, his lover Helena, and the tainted angel that seeks to lead Ariel down the path of immorality and living sinfully, Mephistopheles.
   
   This last song is a song of mortality. Roy Khan, the lead singer for Kamelot, sings of how despite the physical, mental, or spiritual riches you may earn in your lifetime, you will someday die. There will be no legacy in the end, no remembrance. He sings about the inner turmoil over this fact, and the need for the truth. This is when Mephistopheles has come for Ariel's soul, which means Ariel is about to die. This song and its lyrics are the thoughts and spirit of Ariel in his moments before death.
   
   At first, Ariel laments for the human race partially, but also for himself and his life in this world. There is a sense of denial and reminiscence within the first verse that inform us of several world issues such as abortion, religion versus science, and war, while looking on into the future, wondering if someday humans will ever come to peace within ourselves, along with a link to Helena, whose companionship he longs for desperately. Ariel continues to sing about how many others come up with different methods to dodge the ominous idea of no life after death, and how we truly are the most amazing and complicated creatures ever to walk amongst the stars.
   
   Ariel questions religion itself and its ideal of an afterlife, saying how one should live life the way one deems it so, and that one is the real god of their own world, shaping and shifting it to their personal mold. Now, when we say "world", we mean the percieved world we see through our own eyes. This world is different to each and every person. Any change can be made within this world, despite what others may say. He goes on to say that he might look back to the life he abandoned if he ever saw Helena again, however the idea that belief alone can cut us free from sin seems preposterous.
   
   The hypothesis that the only thing you should be concerned with is the here and now, and that worries of death shouldn't be bothered with, are extrapolated in the next verse when Ariel gives peaceful memories of summer days when all was well, but then shifts to the phrase "when the winter blows, you're glad you remember you really tried", which can mean that in the end, it's what you accomplished and never regreted that really mattered. It's the inner peace you should be striving after, is what Ariel is saying.
   Despite the arrogances and duality of human nature, Ariel still has sympathy for people, and despite whatever may lie, if anything does lie, after death, he hopes there will be mercy bestowed on all.
   At this time, he feels ready to leave this life and pass away, having settled that what he sacrificed and achieved in life, and what he has settled in his mind, is enough to grant himself contentment. He awaits his death.
   The voice of Helena can be heard now, with the Latin words "Victoria, non praeda... Memento mori." She is essentially repeating what Ariel has sung earlier in the song, that in the end, celebrate your victories, not your plunders. Memento mori literally translates to "remember that you will die." As she speaks, Mephistopheles is speaking below her, also in Latin. He begins with "Una voce... Volo, non valeo", which translates to "With one voice, unanimously I am willing but unable." (Una Voce is also a Catholic organisation within the Church). At this point, he might be saying that part of him isn't totally corrupted, and that he doesn't quite wish for Ariel's demise per se. The next line of Mephistopheles is the title of a poem written by Wilfred Owen in 1922 about the horrors of war and the savage personality of a human.
   
   The song then goes back to Ariel after the bridge, reiterating his finality and his acceptance of his imminent death, and also that it's what you made of yourself in life that is worth the fight. He hopes that someday we will finally find the truth behind the shadows and the lies, and that we will prosper peacefully. Ariel's last line of this verse is that he does indeed believe that Helena will come to him once again one day, which can point to the transcendance of love and the goodness of humanity; despite the death of his body and soul, Ariel believes that somewhere out there in the wide expanse we call life and death, he will once again be with her.

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