To me, there was never any "awkwardness in the lyrics ... in the transition from the third verse to the repeated bridge, which results in a nonsense thought ('she will cry when she learns that we are two, 'cause I couldn't stand the pain')." At the end of the verse, the 9 chord and the upward move in the melody remind us of the first time it did that, going to the bridge. "When she learns we are two" is the end of the sentence, with a period. Then we're in the now-familiar bridge, and "'Cause I couldn't stand the pain" is just a change of subject, repeating an earlier statement, and takes us back to where we were when we first heard the bridge. I always thought this context jump was hard-hitting but smooth and accessible -- a good idea, well wrought.