Pet Shop Boys - the samurai in autumn, 2002

"Within a deceptively simple framework, the Boys have pulled off something quite remarkable, which can be fully understood only by peeling away its various layers. As befitting its ostensibly Japanese subject matter, the words are in the style of traditional Japanese poetry, striving for economy of language. While it doesn't fit the standard pattern of that most well-known of Japanese poetic forms, a haiku (three lines of five, seven, and five syllables), it's very haiku-like (three lines of eight, nine, and eight syllables). And like a traditional haiku, it focuses on a particular season of the year—in this case, autumn. But whatever you can say about the style, it seems most likely that the lyric is a metaphor for middle age. The samurai—a noble warrior figure, signifying a willingness to stand and fight against forces of opposition, whatever they may be, human or otherwise—is now in the autumn of his life (or the "September of his years," to paraphrase the title of a classic Frank Sinatra album from the mid-sixties). The lyrics neatly juxtapose present ("It's not …"), past ("… as easy as it was"), and future or alternate possibility ("Or as difficult as it could be …"). It's important to note that it's not a certain future (that would have been "Or as difficult as it will be"), but rather a possibility expressed as a conditional verb. While the past and present are known factors, the future is always tenuous and unknown. So this, the lyrics suggest, is what a noble middle age is all about: knowing that youth, the years of greatest ease (at least in physical terms), are now behind you and that the most difficult years (old age) are still ahead—if you're lucky enough to have any years ahead of you at all—and standing ready to face them bravely, come what may, as a warrior prepared for battle."