I look at you all, see the love there that's sleeping While my guitar gently weeps. I look at the floor and I see it needs sweeping Still my guitar gently weeps. I don't know why nobody told you How to unfold your love. I don't know how someone controlled you They bought and sold you. I look at the world and I notice it's turning While my guitar gently weeps. With every mistake we must surely be learning Still my guitar gently weeps. (instrumental) I don't know how you were diverted You were perverted too. I don't know how you were inverted No one alerted you. I look at you all, see the love there that's sleeping While my guitar gently weeps. Look at you all ... Still my guitar gently weeps. The Anthology version added this verse: I look from the wings at the play you are staging While my guitar gently weeps. As I’m sitting here, doing nothing but aging Still my guitar gently weeps.
I wrote ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ at my mother’s house in Warrington (the spiritual home of George Formby). I was thinking about the Chinese I Ching, The Book of Changes. In the West we think of coincidence as being something that just happens —- it just happens that I am sitting here and the wind is blowing my hair, and so on. But the Eastern concept is that whatever happens is all meant to be, and that there’s no such thing as coincidence —- every little item that’s going down has a purpose.‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ was simply a study based on that theory. I decided to write a song based on the first thing I saw upon opening any book — as it would be relative to that moment, at that time. I picked up a book at random, opened it, saw ‘gently weeps’, then laid the book down again and started the song.
「While My Guitar Gently Weeps」這首歌曲，是我在母親家園 Warrington（沃靈頓）（即 George Formby（喬治·福比）的心靈大宅）寫的。當時我正想及《易經》（The Book of Changes）。西方的思想，認為巧合是偶然發生的事情 -- 剛巧我坐在這裡，風吹動我的頭髮，如此類推。東方的思維，則是無論發生什麼事，都是注定的，沒有巧合這回事 –- 每件細項的來臨，均有其目的。「While My Guitar Gently Weeps」一曲，便是基於此理論的一項嘗試。我決定翻開任何一本書，根據即時看見的第一句寫一首歌，因為那是與當前有關的。于是，我隨手翻書，打開便睇到「輕輕地哭泣」。然後我放下書本，開始彈奏寫作這首歌曲。