Lyrics

I wanna   , I want to  
I wanna   down the walls
That   me inside.
I wanna reach  
And touch the  
Where the   have no name.

I wanna feel   on my face.
I see the   -cloud
Disappear without a   .
I wanna take  
From the poison  
Where the streets have no name

Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name.

We're still   and burning down love
Burning down love.
And when I go there
I go there with you
(It's all I can do).

The city's a   , and our love turns to rust.
We're   and blown by the wind
Trampled in   .
I'll show you a  
High on a   plain
Where the streets have no name

Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name.

We're still building and burning down love
Burning down love.
And when I go there
I go there with you
(It's all I can do).
Legend

Meaning

An interesting story that someone told me once is that in Belfast, by what street someone lives on you can tell not only their religion but tell how much money they’re making - literally by which side of the road they live on, because the further up the hill the more expensive the houses become. You can almost tell what the people are earning by the name of the street they live on and what side ot that street they live on. That said something to me, and so I started writing about a place where the streets have no name...."

-bono

THE DUST CLOUD= If this is a reference to the Book of Revelation, then the dust cloud that disappears is the armies from the past battle between good and evil.


TOUCH THE FLAME= What fire is Bono talking about here? Why does he want to touch it? If the interpretation under the tab "Meaning" makes sense, this flame here is "God", an image drawn from Revelation 21:23 "the glory of God is its light, and the Lamb [Jesus] is the city’s lamp". Also, God appears many times in the Bible under the image of a fire (for example the column of fire guiding Israel out of Egypt). The flame may also be an image of the Holy Spirit, representing in this case God's wisdom and spiritual illumination (as the tongues of fire from Pentecostest). In any case, what Bono is talking about here is that he wants to reach God's light.

Vocabulary

tear down

to intentionally destroy a building or other structure because it is not being used or it is not wanted any more
Obviously we shouldn't risk anyone's safety, so we must tear the building down

rust

Metals rust when combined with water or damp air and they deteriorate. When iron rusts, it gets a red cover, when silver rusts it turns black, when copper rusts it turns green, when your love (your English or any other ability) rusts, it gets more difficult to use because if you don't speak English for a long time, it gets rusty and you find it much more difficult to speak it because you forgot many things. If your love gets rusty, your ability to love deteriorates, but if it "turns to rust" then all of it is rust, so now it's useless, you can't love.

reach out

Move your hand forwards in order to touch or grab something.

Without a trace

Completely. A trace is a visible mark or evidence left by someone or something, so if something disappears without a trace, it disappears completely, not even a small mark is left.

burn down

To burn down is to destroy (by fire). So if we are building love and then burning it down, it means that we sometimes do things correctly and sometimes we do things wrong, so our society is not really advancing to perfection (or at least not fast enough)

flood

A flood is when everything (or a big part of it) is covered by water, for example because it rained too much and the river overflows.

trample

To beat down with the feet so as to crush, bruise, or destroy.
if a group of horses run over you, they trample you and you are badly hurt, and of course, you are "trampled in dust", because the passing horses (or the strong wind) produce a dust cloud when passing by

Take shelter

To protect yourself from bad weather, danger, or attack:
We took shelter for the night in an abandoned house.