[Multilingual Monday] Understanding song lyrics
I love music written in other languages -- obviously. There are styles, points of view, and more that I wouldn't hear otherwise if I just stuck to English music. Plus I'm a linguaphile, so really this is no shock. It's, in fact, what drew me initially to Eurovision -- before the free language rule, each country had to sing in one of its official languages. Though you can now sing in anything (meaning: everyone sings in English, even if said English isn't understandable in the least), some countries stick to one of their official languages, and Spain's entries have been predominantly in Spanish.
It's always humbling when you come across something that you can, literally, understand, but the true meaning is somewhat elusive, and in song lyrics this is probably going to be expected, with a more "poetic" mode of expression (sometimes!). Last year's Spanish Eurovision entry had a lyric, "Quiero clavarte mi cruz," or "I want to nail you to my cross." What?? At first I thought it was just an excuse to get a rhyme -- it followed "No hay tabus" -- so I started to ask around what this line meant, and I could never get a clear answer. "Oh, that saying is really popular because [another singer] sang that!" Okay, but what does it MEAN? What is this supposed to CONVEY?
The same happened years ago with a La Oreja de Van Gogh song which featured the lyric, "Un café con sal," or "A coffee with salt." Again, what???? I can understand the WORDS but what does this imply? I was reading around and someone stated that this combination was used to induce vomiting. So should I imply this line as "feeling nauseous"? It was never made clear, but I'm now half-tempted to call my chibi-Roger comic strip "Café Con Sal" :: laugh ::
So, can you explain the nuances of these lines? Or do you have other confusing song lyrics from other languages? I'd love to hear them!
It's always humbling when you come across something that you can, literally, understand, but the true meaning is somewhat elusive, and in song lyrics this is probably going to be expected, with a more "poetic" mode of expression (sometimes!). Last year's Spanish Eurovision entry had a lyric, "Quiero clavarte mi cruz," or "I want to nail you to my cross." What?? At first I thought it was just an excuse to get a rhyme -- it followed "No hay tabus" -- so I started to ask around what this line meant, and I could never get a clear answer. "Oh, that saying is really popular because [another singer] sang that!" Okay, but what does it MEAN? What is this supposed to CONVEY?
The same happened years ago with a La Oreja de Van Gogh song which featured the lyric, "Un café con sal," or "A coffee with salt." Again, what???? I can understand the WORDS but what does this imply? I was reading around and someone stated that this combination was used to induce vomiting. So should I imply this line as "feeling nauseous"? It was never made clear, but I'm now half-tempted to call my chibi-Roger comic strip "Café Con Sal" :: laugh ::
So, can you explain the nuances of these lines? Or do you have other confusing song lyrics from other languages? I'd love to hear them!