My brother had once played this song in his car, and said… ‘if your English is good, try to understand what this song really means’…
Well, my English is never good to begin with… but I don’t accept defeat easily. Though, I have to say that such poetic material is not easily understood and digested just by listening, even if it was written in my mother tongue which is Malay.
I didn’t say much about the song when he challenged me, worst, I even misheard some of the lyrics when he asked me ‘what it’s saying?’… well.. I’m not an audio person… I tend to misheard things all the times… the other day, I bought a bottle of fabric softener when my mum asked for detergent. .. I’m not deaf, it’s just that… my mind never stays still… the only thing that halts it from wandering is a visual attraction/distraction. Well, what happened was, mum talked about fabric softener after she requested me to buy her the detergent and she talked to me when I was choosing outfit to wear for the outing…my memory was confused, haha… and last four years, I screwed up listening part for my IELTS. I blamed the test for having only four parts which are reading, writing, listening and speaking but not watching. Haha…
However, as I said, I’m not deaf… if you need to talk something important to me, steal my attention first… make me look at you, then talk…
Ok, let’s go back to the song. I had browsed for the song lyrics and tried to find its official MV and also looked for the song meaning… but they don't help much.
Anyway, since that I’m not that ‘rajin’ to do the homework on the song… I’ll just try to interpret it myself… using my limited understanding of this language. *tunjuk pandai*
Before I begin with my pseudo-analytical insight of the song, I have to say that I always love many of Celine Dion’s songs… the lyrics are always beautiful and sometimes very poetic, oh the compliment should go to the lyricists and this song was written by Walter Afanasieff… oh, I never knew about him… but as it says in the wiki, he wrote for many great artists…
So, the song really suits my taste perfectly.. but to really understand what its saying is a different thing. In my-not-so-thoughtful opinion, it’s probably about a sacrifice of one’s love for the sake of an ambition. Someone once told me that, it is rare to find a man who could really balance between love and carrier. Well, that person, being a businessman himself would probably be talking from his own perspective. I guess romance and success don’t really go hand in hand. However, as the famous saying goes ‘behind every successful man, there is a great woman’… there got to be some truth in both. I had witnessed both.
Since the song is sung by woman, it kind of makes some sense. Women don’t rise to the top easily and normally men are not pleased with us being better than them. Some husbands don’t find it acceptable to have his wife earning more than him. You know, man’s ego. So maybe, the woman in the song decides to let go of his love for the sake of her ambition. Maybe her man is the one who was holding her back from achieving her dream. But being a woman, her heart doesn’t un-love or forget the man. So she goes for her dream, carrying the memory of love with her. She fights for her dream as if she is going to live forever. Also, maybe the man lets her go for her dream, that’s why she says ‘we don’t say goodbye’. However she does remind the man that her future is uncertain. Like the cards play in poker. Her fate is on the wind. That’s why she takes her heart back and leaves him with no hope but only feeling.
Or, another possible interpretation is… her husband could be dead… she is simply moving on, but keeping the memory. Haha…
Omg… why did I bother to write about this… hahaha… I’m just bored.
Anyway, maybe the writer didn’t really think that deep when he wrote the song. Probably he was squeezing lemon for lemonade or brushing his teeth or shaving his moustache, suddenly a cluster of words appeared on his mind… he grabbed his pen and paper or laptop or whatever medium he used, then scribbled them down… then walla.. ‘here is a new song for Celine Dion!’.. he already got the name back then…
but brother, why did you want me to understand this song?
Hopefully, I won’t give up on either love or carrier that easily.
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