| Pink Floyd – Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun Lyrics | 8 years ago |
|
It's a bit deflating to know that 7 out of 15 lines were taken from translations of Tang-era Chinese poetry. It points up the folly of imputing deep meanings to rock lyrics, even if they are Pink Floyd's. On the other hand, Waters didn't steal whole poems. He selectively took 7 lines from 7 different poems by four different poets (mainly Li Shangyin) so the way he wove them together is his very much his own. It's a bit like creative 'sampling'. One of the lines is brilliant. The Chinese poet wrote that one inch of love was one inch of ashes, because once it's burned out all that's left is ash. Waters changed this to "one inch of love is one inch of shadow", which is much more sinister and ties in with the rest of the lyrics in a very interesting way. It certainly ties in with Waters' pessimistic take on life. I think this (and the freaky title) saves the song from being just a mishmash of plagiarised lines. |
|
| Pink Floyd – Cirrus Minor Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| @[meltingman:23722] Funny, I always thought the river's daughters were naiads... | |
| Pink Floyd – Cirrus Minor Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| The last line of this song, "A thousand miles of moonlight later", is taken from a book of Chinese poetry that Roger Waters read in the 1960s called "Poems of the Late Tang". The line is from a poem by Li He called "On The Frontier". See www.cjvlang.com/Pfloyd/index.html | |
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.