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Long Way Off
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Oct 28, 2026 updated
Verified editorial review
Song Meaning
Gungor's "Long Way Off" opens with a wry image of clever men launching a rocket at some distant target, only to realize they've lost it — and the repeated refrain turns that failure into a confession: we are a long way off. The verses pile up human attempts to measure and contain reality, from a world with corners and endings that turns out to be farther than expected, to an erudite thesis insisting that everything visible is all there is. Against that confident materialism the song sets the figure of the apophatic mystic, someone who admits how much lies beyond knowing, and the chorus keeps returning to the same humble distance. The closing turn is the most striking: when time's waves wash the shores clean of memories and the last of me, and castles are gone to the constant sea, the singer asks simply, "Will you stay with me." It's a song about the limits of intellect and the persistence of longing, ending not in certainty but in a plea for presence.
Lyrics Verified by Editorial Team
The smartest men, they built a rocket
Aimed it at a target far, far, far away
But by the time they knew they lost it
It was a long way, was a long way, was a long way
We’re a long way, we’re a long way, we’re a long way off
The smartest men, they saw a world with
Corners and endings far, far, far away
But when they drew it out and searched it
They were a long way, were a long way, were a long way
We’re a long way, we’re a long way, we’re a long way
The erudite composed a thesis
Everything we see is all, all, all there is
But as an apophatic mystic
We’re a long way, we’re a long way, we’re a long way
We’re a long way, we’re a long way, we’re a long way off
When the waves of time
Wash the shores stark clean
Of the memories, the last of me
With my castles gone to the constant sea
Will you stay with me
Stay with me