ترانه‌ی «گفتمان معلق» از «سایمون و گارفانکل» نخستین‌بار در سپتامبر 1966 در قالب Single منتشر شد. موضوع ترانه، گفت‌وگوی نه‌چندان خوش‌آیندْ میان عاشق‌هاست. پُل سایمون ضمن اذعان به این‌که «گفتمان معلق» محوریت شخصی دارد، قطعه را با شاه‌کارشان «صدای سکوت» مقایسه کرده‌است. سبک ملودی و هارمونیِ قطعه نزدیک به Folk Rock است که از این منظر، با دیگرقطعه‌های دهه‌ی شصت تمایز دارد. بشنوید و بخوانید:
It’s a still-life watercolor
Of a now late afternoon
As the sun shines through the curtain lace
And shadows wash the room
And we sit and drink our coffee
Couched in our indifference
Like shells upon the shore
You can hear the ocean roar
In the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs
The borders of our lives
And you read your Emily Dickinson
And I my Robert Frost
And we note our places with bookmarkers
That measure what we’ve lost
Like a poem poorly written
We are verses out of rhythm
Couplets out of rhyme
In syncopated time
And the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs
Are the borders of our lives
Yes,we speak of thing that matter
With words that must be said
“Can analysis be worthwhile?”
“Is the theater really dead?”
And how the room is softly faded
And I only kiss your shadow
I cannot feel your hand
You’re a stranger now unto me
Lost in the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs
In the borders of our lives.
Of a now late afternoon
As the sun shines through the curtain lace
And shadows wash the room
And we sit and drink our coffee
Couched in our indifference
Like shells upon the shore
You can hear the ocean roar
In the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs
The borders of our lives
And you read your Emily Dickinson
And I my Robert Frost
And we note our places with bookmarkers
That measure what we’ve lost
Like a poem poorly written
We are verses out of rhythm
Couplets out of rhyme
In syncopated time
And the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs
Are the borders of our lives
Yes,we speak of thing that matter
With words that must be said
“Can analysis be worthwhile?”
“Is the theater really dead?”
And how the room is softly faded
And I only kiss your shadow
I cannot feel your hand
You’re a stranger now unto me
Lost in the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs
In the borders of our lives.
