| A Fine Frenzy – Ashes and Wine Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I understand Alison Sudol loves and is inspired by great literature. The lyric in the song -- "ashes in wine" -- maybe it has some relationship to Greek legend of a woman drinking her lover's ashes in wine and to an ancient epitaph: "We, the dead, are only bones and ashes: waste no precious ointments or wreaths upon our tomb, for it is only marble; kindle no funeral pyre, for it is useless extravagance. If you have anything to give, give it while I am alive; but if you steep ashes in wine you only make mud, for the dead man does not drink." (as quoted in an essay on Omar Khayyam by Nathan Haskell Dole in the "Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern", page 8456 [retrieved from Google Books]. Of course, even if Alison Sudol were playing off this theme, it does not "fix" the meaning of her song, but I think it helps to consider it as having less direct meanings and multiple layers of meaning. It is a great, great song. | |
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