What is the song "samson" by regina spektor about? who is samson?

Yes, it is from a biblical story as another answer states.

May I add that the story is also mentioned in Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"

......

You saw her bathing on the roof
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne
and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

I recently lost my wife to cancer. I think that the female in the song has cancer. Early in the song she says that she is the one who "has to go", which I think refers to her impending death. I think that his only eating a "slice of wonder bread" is indication that he has a loss of appetite because his love is dying. I know I lost weight and could hardly eat for just this very reason. The reference to her cutting his hair is an effort on his part to look similar to her. When he comes into her bed and tells her that "her hair WAS red" indicates that she had already lost her hair and he is reminding her of her beauty and her red hair. Cutting his hair was just a way to help her not feel so different and alone. As for the reference to the bringing down the "columns" to me this refers to the simultaneous challenges or columns that you try to bring down when fighting cancer. For example, managing pain and fighting fever. I know my experience with my wife has influenced my interpretation of this song. I'm very thankful to Regina Spektor for writing Sampson.

I dont know the whole truth to this,but as i heard it-Samson is a mixture between the story of samson n delilah and her friend who she loved dying from cancer-"Your hair was long when we first met

Samson went back to bed
Not much hair left on his head
He ate a slice of wonder bread and went right back to bed
And history books forgot about us and the bible didn't mention us
And the bible didn't mention us, not even once"-his hair was long till chemo-tired all the time-bread was all he could stomache without getting sick-and as he lost his hair n strength she was reminded of samson losing his hair n strenght-the history books n bible not mentioning them is her friend passing and the world not noticing-like i said though,i dont know how true this meaning is

This isn't my answer, but i don't think i could write it better so i'm gonna put it down here. It's by a 'buffyx' on the SongMeanings website. It makes sence to me. It's a bit long, but the insight it brings is worth it!

"I went and read some about the story of Samson and Delilah, and I think it gave me more insight into this song.

According to the biblical story, Samson was given extraordinary physical strength through God. First he fell in love with a woman named Timnah, a Philistine, and weds her-- at the wedding reception, he promises a group of Philistines that he will provide them with thirty sets of clothes if they can solve a riddle. They are unable to solve it, but they implore Timnah to get the answer from him-- she does, and tells them, and Samson becomes furious because he doesn't have clothing to give to them.

He leaves town and kills thirty other men in a nearby village, steals their clothing, but when he returns, Timnah is now married to a friend of his. Enraged, he ultimately ends up killing a thousand of the Philistines.

When he goes to Gaza, Samson meets and falls in love with Delilah. The Philistines convince her to get him to tell her the source of his power-- he tells her it's his hair (however, it was not *really* in his hair, but because he had already broken two laws of the Nazarite. this was enough for God to take his power away from him).

Delilah cuts off all of Samson's hair, and then he is captured by the Philistines, who gouge out his eyeballs. However, the way he dies is by pulling down the two central pillars in a temple.

This seems to be referred to in the song with the lines "Oh, we couldn't bring the columns down / Yeah, we couldn't destroy a single one."

I think the narrator of this song-- Delilah-- is lamenting about what could have been. Because she secretly did love Samson. All of the stories say that Samson loved Delilah, and make no mention of her returning the feelings. The lyric "I loved you first" seems to imply that not only did she love him back, but she loved him before he even loved her.

As I see it, this song is about how she imagined a different ending for their tragic romance. In this version, after she cuts his hair, he just eats a piece of bread, tells her it's okay, it's all right, nothing has changed. They make love and get a happy ending.

And in her version, the Bible doesn't even mention them because what she did didn't matter-- he didn't change history, and they just loved each other, quietly."

I believe it is a song about the biblical story--however, i believe that the love mentioned isn't between Samson and Delilah, it is between Samson and the servant who delilah orders to cut off Samson's hair. I believe that this is true, because it refrences being forgotten in the bible. Also, the line "I loved you first" makes sense because it could be in reference to the attention Delilah got, and the jealousy that the servant feels about that.

It's about her first love whom she never forgets. Although she recalls all the good stuff, like the hair was long when they first met and then she cut his hair that significantly referring to the relationship that she ended. Eventhough how hard they've tried to regain their strenght they can't bring the hindrance (columns)that is along their way, eventhough the effort is their to settle all the pieces again, they can no longer do it for she has to go! Truly, Delilah here is head over heals to Samson and this time the Samson is Delilah's sweetest downfall...

it's about her domesticating a man

This song REFERS to the biblical story about Samson, but it is NOT about it, it clearly states: "The Bible didn't mention us, not even once." To my perspective, she is just reflecting herself in the story as a mirror, and even though she finds the story not perfectly analog, the story serves as a context for what she means to say, only as a point of reference: "we couldn't bring the columns down" therefore, differentiates the ending of the Bible story to hers.
Samson story is about love that couldn't go beyond lust. This song's main idea for me is: "my story's love actually goes beyond lust". Samson loses his strength for lust in the original story, here he loses it for love, that's why "he told me that I'd done alright". "I loved you first" makes another contrasting reference as Delilah did not love Samson originally, but in this other story, she loves him besides his "hair [that] was long when we first met" (strength) and with a pair of dull (not aggressive) scissors, she delicately "cuts" it.
Definitely a nicely baked, delicious and beautifully tender complex song.

well the bible doesnt mention love between two women. Just an idea

i believe it is about the relationship between two people very much in love. and the cutting of his hair is significant to their relationship losing its spark, losing its power(strength) referring back to the biblical story of samson while after his hair was cut ..he had lost all his strength and became weak..just like the their relationship after his hair had been cut. or another interpretation could be that its the love story about deliah and samson that was never mentioned in the bible...and how deliah was sent to find the source of his power(ie. cuting his hair) and succeeding..but also falling in love with him as that would be her sweetest downfall is how she fell in love with him .

The song Samson by Regina Spektor isn't about Samson and Delilah. It's a story about ordinary love mirrored in the tragic love story from the bible.
The song is about two ordinary people, who fall into an extraordinary love, and then are forgotten by history. It's about the kind of love that only the two people who are in love can understand how miraculous it is. It's the type of love that happens everyday.
Their love wasn't earth shattering, it just was. It was completely ordinary. Samson goes get a slice of bread (something that almost everyone has in their pantry) and just comes back to bed. These little things don't seem so signifigant until they don't happen anymore.
My guess is that "Samson" died or left, and his love is remembering all the little things that he did that she misses; she may also be singing about something that is now just a beautiful memory. Either way, the song is about beautiful, lost, ordinary love.

The song Samson by Regina Spektor isn't about Samson and Delilah. It's a story about ordinary love mirrored in the tragic love story from the bible.
The song is about two ordinary people, who fall into an extraordinary love, and then are forgotten by history. It's about the kind of love that only the two people who are in love can understand how miraculous it is. It's the type of love that happens everyday.
Their love wasn't earth shattering, it just was. It was completely ordinary. Samson goes get a slice of bread (something that almost everyone has in their pantry) and just comes back to bed. These little things don't seem so signifigant until they don't happen anymore.
My guess is that "Samson" died or left, and his love is remembering all the little things that he did that she misses; she may also be singing about something that is now just a beautiful memory. Either way, the song is about beautiful, lost, ordinary love.

It's not about the Bible. At all. It's actually about a goon from SomethingAwful that she loved.

Samson is a character in the Bible who had supernatural strength because of his long hair. I know it sounds silly, but that's the way God allowed him to be. No one knew why he has this strength, except for himself.
It's a long story, but basically God wanted Samson to help Israel conquer the Philistines who were overtaking their land. However, Samson fell in love with a Philistine woman, which became a distraction from his main purpose.
Eventually they got married. At the wedding feast, Samson tells a riddle to his Philistine servants which is impossible for them to solve. And if they get it, he is to give them 30 garments. The Philistines became frustrated and threatened Samson's wife to get the answer of the riddle.
After crying and begging, Samson finally gave in to his wife. The Philistines came to him and told him the answer to the riddle, and Samson knew his wife had told them and was very angry. He then left to find 30 garments.
When Samson returned to town, his wife had been given away to another man. He became enraged and attacked the Philistines. But the Philistines retaliated by burning his wife and her family. This only made him more angry and he slaughtered even more Philistines.
As time went on, Samson began sleeping around with prostitutes. It was during this time when he met a prostitute named Delilah who he eventually fell in love with. However, it wasn't long till the Philistines went to Delilah offering her large amounts of money if she were to find out Samson's weakness and reason for his supernatural strength. After many tries, Samson finally gave in and confessed that he got his strength from his long hair. So one night the Philistines came into his room and cut his hair off.
They were finally able to overpower him, chaining and locking him up (they even gouged out his eyes). While he was locked up, he realized all the mistakes he had made and repented to God for not following His plan.
Many months went by. The Philistines were celebrating from Samson's imprisonment and a large crowd gathered for the special occasion. They chained Samson in between 2 giant pillars for everyone to see. They tormented and ridiculed him. By this time Samson realized a lot of his hair had grown back. He prayed one last prayer to God, and with all his strength he leaned and pushed on the pillars, which came crashing down on the Philistines and himself. Everyone perished.
And that is the true story of Samson. There are a lot of details that i didn't include only because it would take me forever to type it all out. But this is just a quick summary of what really happened.

I also think it revolves around the biblical Samson and Delilah, but through a different perspective. I think this song is based on the idea that she actually did love him, and is explaining her real feelings, Rather than her callous greed written about in the bible, hence the line "Beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth", the "truth" being that she really did love him. The verse where she cuts his hair is, to me, her vocalization of the fear and grief and regret she experiences after betraying him, and his forgiveness is further reinforcing the idea that they really do love each other. Also, the line: "we couldn't bring the columns down" is more a metaphorical play on the events in the actual biblical story; likewise, the line: "we couldn't destroy a single one" displays her sadness at their inability to get the real story out past the twisted version in the bible; the "ones" she mentions being lies. Finally, I think the verse about how "the bible didn't mention us, not even once" is not literally about the two of them as people, rather the "us" being the love between them, which was strong enough to define them.
Remember, this is only my interpretation. The unique thing about all really good songs is their ability to be heard differently by everyone, and still get a similar message across.

I believe it's about the love between and mother and her child... "I loved you first", the first person to love us is our mother. "samson came to my bed" reminds me of a child coming into their parents bed and then "samson went back to bed, ate a slice of wonderbread and went right back to bed" This is the little boy getting a snack and going back to his own room. I think she sneakily changes the spelling of Samson to give a little insight into this, because the biblical version is Sampson. I also think she is just mirroring the story of the bible but not saying necisarily that she is the mother of the sampson in the bible. Just a thought

Samson is a Biblical figure who lost his strength when his lover cut off his hair.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG6461

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson