The Lyrics:

I still recall the taste of your tears
echoing your voice just like the ringing in my ears
my faded dreams of you still wash ashore
scraping through my head til I don't wanna sleep..anymore
you make this all go away [2x]
I'm down to just one thing, and I'm starting to scare myself
you make this all go away [2x]
I just want something I can never have
you always were the one to show me how
back then I couldn't do the things that I can do now
this thing is slowly taking me apart
gray would be the color, if I had a heart
come on tell me
you make this all go away [2x]
I'm down to just one thing, and I'm starting to scare myself
you make this all go away [2x]
I just want something I can never have
in this place it seems like such a shame
though it all looks different now, I know it's still the same
everywhere I look, you're all I see
just a fading fucking reminder of who I used to be
you make this all go away [2x]
I'm down to just one thing, and I'm starting to scare myself
you make this all go away [2x]
I just want something I can never have [2x]

(Pre 5-12-98)
"I still recall the taste of your tears
echoing your voice just like the ringing in my ears
my faded dreams of you still wash ashore
scraping through my head til I don't wanna sleep..anymore"

Sadness and sorrow, missing something that you once cherrished, the dreams that fade away into nothingness, leaving only a faint memory of what once was considered perfection. But every so often, they come back, without warning, the ever cliche'd face across a crowded room, the lonely nights dreaming of that perfection, that person, wanting them back. Tortured by memories, dreams of the love. Not wanting to forget, but knowing that if you don't forget, don't let go, you'll go insane wanting them.
Also, the dreams turned into nightmares, love forsaken, betrayed.. All my dreams have gone wrong.

"you make this all go away [2x]
I'm down to just one thing, and I'm starting to scare myself
you make this all go away [2x]
I just want something I can never have"

If you were here, the pain would be gone, you would make it go away. All I have left is you, and that frightens me, because I really don't have you, you're gone.. You've gone away.. I miss you, I love you, I want you back.. But I can never have you.

"you always were the one to show me how
back then I couldn't do the things that I can do now"

You were the one who made me what I am, you taught me to feel, to be, to love.. Everything I am, you have made me.

"this thing is slowly taking me apart
gray would be the color, if I had a heart"

I don't know what to do without you, I'm falling apart. I gave you my heart, and you turned it to ashes.. I am nothing without you, nothing is left.

"come on tell me"

Tell me this.. Tell me why.. Help me understand how something so perfect could have gone so wrong.. How.. Why.. Why?

"you make this all go away [2x]
I'm down to just one thing, and I'm starting to scare myself
you make this all go away [2x]
I just want something I can never have"

Again, Trying desprately to win back that love, that perfection, even though you know that it cannot be done, human nature demands it. Whether it is a person, an ideal, or an object.. Being so close to perfection and losing it, forgetting it, it's unbearable.. Even knowing that it's impossible, you have to try, have to try to redeem that perfection.. Hoping against hope that a miracle will happen and your dreams will come true.

"in this place it seems like such a shame
though it all looks different now, I know it's still the same"

I keep going back to all the places we used to go, the places that were special for us... It seems wrong to be there without you, it's different, empty, lonely.. It's still the same surroundings, the same place, but without you there...

"everywhere I look, you're all I see
just a fading fucking reminder of who I used to be"

Everywhere I look I see memories of us, together, happy... I hear your voice laughing in my ear as I pass through the ghostly halls of memory, teasing me, pulling me onward.. Tormenting me with thoughts of you.. Wanting you again.. Remembering myself, as I was, as you made me... I've changed so much since then... I'm a different person now, maybe a little bitter, lonely, wistful.. Everything I see reminds me of the way you made me feel back then, makes me desprate to regain those feelings.. But it's impossible, too much has changed, I'm not the same person you destroyed.

"you make this all go away [2x]
I'm down to just one thing, and I'm starting to scare myself
you make this all go away [2x]
I just want something I can never have [2x]"

But still.. Still I dream of you. Still I want you. Still I need you. You are everything, and I hate myself for feeling that way. Come back.. Make the pain, the sadness, the confusion go away.. Come back to me, make it all go away. I know that I can never have you.. But I still want you. I want you.

(Pre 5-12-98)
I'm not trying to give a interpertation to this song. I just want to say what the song means to me.
The song says to me that when you are in love with someone you do these things like hear their voice and in dream. When you dream about them and that tears you up in side and you can't get them off your mind and when your with some body they can bring something out of you that you can't and when that's over you learn something from them and you grow from that and you rember who you used to be.

(Pre 5-12-98)
In my opinion, "Something I Can Never Have" is more of a hateful song than a depressing song.

"Come on tell me, you make this all go away you make this all go away I'm down to just one thing and I'm starting to scare myself"---- My interpretation is:

You hurt me, I want to see you hurt. Tell me that I'm all you have... theres nothing left but me in your world.

(Pre 5-12-98)
"something i can never have" is possibly my favorite nin song...the lyrics speak to me and i find your interpritation quite accurate except for one line (which i believe to be the most important) "im down to just one thing and im starting to scare myself" conveys more than loss more than desperation...in my opinion its the extreem you reach when all you ever wanted is gone...irretriviably lost...there is nothing left but death...and this realization is frightening (of course)...well thats my interpretation of that particular lyric...otherwize...great job!

(Pre 5-12-98)
I am absolutely in line with your interpretation of SICNH, my only reason for adding this commentary is because of the few werds left out, not out of the song, but off of the album cover. At the end of the song, 2 more lines are printed, and although they are left out of the song for whatever reason, I do believe they have great meaning to the song. First though, I would like to comment on a few lines of Lyrics, and add to the interpertations of yours. I first believe that this was not about an ex-girlfriend, but more to a best(female)friend of his, one that he was very close to. More so, he attempted to take this friendship to the next level, and was rejected of it. Futhermore, he is now a different person as is the relationship different, because of such events.

Now to completely contradict myself, I go to the earlier mentioned last two lines, not in the song.

"think i know what you meant , that night on my bed, still picking at this scab, i wish you were dead
your sweat and perry ellis , just stains on my sheets"

This I believe futher enhances your interpretation, and makes even more sense of it, I am not sure why he left it out of the song, or even better, why he put it in the album cover, but it can at least be said that this is refering to the last night he was intimate with her, and she obviously hinted to the fact that the relationship was failing. Therefore, this could almost be the start of the song, rather then the end. Whereas, she left him, but it still kills him, the amount that he misses her, "still picking at this scab"(also meaning he keeps bringing the gurl up in his memory)..and his love/hate for her "i wish you were dead". As for the "sweat and perry ellis,just stains on my sheets" could be refering to his almost admitance that he will never be with her again.

I do realize that I have sent mixed messages with this commentary, but hey, I believe Trent would have it no other way......

(Pre 5-12-98)
The whole song opens with what remains in that person's lost love. Having been left or forgotten, memories of the past become more valued. The tears, voice and dreams linger. And these memories are so damn vivid and so very intense, that they can't be forgotten. "til I don't wanna sleep.." However, all these lively and ever present memories can be washed away, by reality, and by that special someone whom hurt the person (we will call the missing person, person B). "You make this all go away." Then the person who was hurt (will be called person A) finds the memory has become the last thing left. "I'm down to just one thing..." and so A gets scared, realizing the memories are now the only damned thing left. "I just want something i can never have..", is the realization that the chance of physically re-obtaining that person.. death.. geographical differ.. present relationships..) Then the memories return. That of how B taught A how to love, how to feel, and how to touch. And learning to do things A couldn't do but can do now. And now the seperation between A and B is slowly tearing A apart. So then the memories now move into reality. In this place, where A and B loved, felt and touched, it shames A now, how A could be hurt so easily. And even though everything has changed, the place itself, time, relations.. to A, it's all the same. These speak for themselves "Everywhere I look, you're all I see.. just a fading fucking reminder of who I used to be.." (now without B, A's ability to love has been hindered by the memories.) Then comes the reluctant acceptance and a little defiance. the "how could you do this to me?!" but at the same time, sadness remains as A realizes that A still wants something A can never have. "think I know what you mean.. that night on my bed.." and I suppose the `bed' is where A and B loved, touched, tasted tears, recalled dreams.. and now, person A is in full acceptance.. A will never forget the pain and hurt.. "still picking at this scab.." "i wish u were dead" translates into A feels dead now and A wishes the same upon B. Your sweat (all your work) and your perry ellis (your present love, i suppose, or your belongings?).. "just the stains on my sheets.." and stains (again, the memories) on my sheets (my life, my mind, my everything.)

I hope you ppl can relate to this (actually i don't.. it's not anything pleasant). Anyway, this is what this song means to me.. the hoss-caliber task it takes to let go and forget..

(Pre 5-12-98)
The interpretations here are pretty well substantiated. But I don't think this song has the vagueness of say, Tori Amos. Something I Can Never Have is about lost love. It's THE breakup song if you've been dumped by someone you still love. When Trent was recording PHM in England, and he called home to see if he could hook up with an old girlfriend, he found out she just got knocked up. That's the thing he could never have. The perfect love with that girl.
I think that this song is the most quiet and unobtrusive song off of PHM, which has an undertone of the internal suffering this song relates to. No one else can truly understand the love you have for someone else. And no one else can possibly comprehend the suffering you get if your love goes unanswered. This is a burden one must bear alone, and silently. Inside.

(Pre 5-12-98)
I can see quite clearly that many people think that this song is about an old lover, and i suppose after listening to so many NIN songs that is a fairly safe assumption, but there have always been a few lyrics in this particular track that have made me think otherwise. The lines that I am referring to are, "You make this all go away..." and, "You always were the one to show me how, back then I could not do the things that I can do now." These are not really things that you would say to a lover, unless they were a pedophile, at least not as far as I can tell. These strike me more or less as comments one would make to someone that protected another through fragile years, like a parent or a grandparent. Maybe there is evidence out there that my thought is far from valid, but it is always what I figured.

(Pre 5-12-98)
All one's thoughts, desires, wants, needs, feelings, love, hate, and life's work let down by god when his soul was sent to hell unrightfully after being a faithful Christian all of his life and being told that everything he ever did was a lie and the meaning of life was not what he expected.

(5-26-98)
I feel that this amazing song is basically about remembering the painful past. Dreaming of how it was, and how it could still be...but isn't, "...Just a fading fucking reminder of who I used to be..." He is living his life in the past. He is trapped. All he can think about is how his life was, and the present part of his life is fading away. Everything reminds him of the past. And he wants so bad to have it all back. I am guessing this song is about a past relationship. And Trent wants more than anything, to live it all over again. And until then, he will live in all the happiness of it.