The song 'Fortnight' by Taylor Swift and Post Malone tells a story about strong feelings, complicated relationships, and secret wishes. It talks about love, betrayal, and wanting someone who doesn't feel the same. The word 'fortnight' shows short-lived happiness and guilty pleasures, leading to sadness. It shows how messy relationships can be and the results of hiding emotions. “I was supposed to be sent away / But they forgot to come and get me,” she kickstarts the song in the first verse with lines suggesting an admission to a hospital for people with mental illnesses. She goes in the verse admitting her lover is the reason why she is like this. In the chorus, she sings about their time in love and reflects on how he has now settled with someone else. “I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary / And I love you, it’s ruining my life,” on the second verse she details her struggles to forget about him and the negative effects of her failure. “Thought of callin’ ya, but you won’t pick up / ‘Nother fortnight lost in America,” Post Malone sings in the outro.
Here is a scale, weigh it out
And you will find, easily
More than sufficient doubt
That these colors you see
Were picked in advance
By some careful hand
With an absolute concept of beauty
They are smeared and these blurs
Come in random order
And color the eyes of your former lovers
Hers were green like July
Except when she cried
They were red
Now I know a disease
That these doctors can't treat
You contract on the day
You accept all you see
Is a mirror and a mirror is all it can be
A reflection of something we're missing
And language just happened
It was never planned
And it's inadequate to describe where I am
In the room of my house
Where the light has never been
Waiting for this day to end
And these clocks keep unwinding
And completely ignore
Everything that we hate or adore
Once the page of a calendar is turned it's no more
So tell me, then, what was it for?
Oh, tell me, what was it for?
And you will find, easily
More than sufficient doubt
That these colors you see
Were picked in advance
By some careful hand
With an absolute concept of beauty
They are smeared and these blurs
Come in random order
And color the eyes of your former lovers
Hers were green like July
Except when she cried
They were red
Now I know a disease
That these doctors can't treat
You contract on the day
You accept all you see
Is a mirror and a mirror is all it can be
A reflection of something we're missing
And language just happened
It was never planned
And it's inadequate to describe where I am
In the room of my house
Where the light has never been
Waiting for this day to end
And these clocks keep unwinding
And completely ignore
Everything that we hate or adore
Once the page of a calendar is turned it's no more
So tell me, then, what was it for?
Oh, tell me, what was it for?
Lyrics submitted by PLANES, edited by pixelcreme
A Scale, a Mirror, and Those Indifferent Clocks Lyrics as written by Conor Oberst
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
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This is one of my favorites from Conor (And therefor my favorites ever).
I'm gonna put my long and pointless interpretation now (Its unfinished, I have to add a few things, especially about the mirror):
“Here is a scale, weigh it out And you will find, easily More than sufficient doubt That these colors you see Were picked in advance By some careful hand With an absolute concept of beauty”
I see this as the doubt of a god (“Some careful hand with an absolute concept of beauty”). When you take the reasons for his existence and the reasons for non existence on a scale, he says you’ll see easily that the reasons for doubt make more sense to him. He’s trying to make logical sense and figure out if god exists. And maybe alongside fate, as well (“We’re picked in advance”). The doubt of fate and god, I guess. The concept of beauty is the views of the god, picking out people to be chosen by what he thinks is right, I suppose (For instance, a god picking people to go to Heaven based on things out of the bible and such).
“They are smeared and these blurs Come in random order To color the eyes of your former lovers Hers were green like July Except when she cried They were red”
I think the smeared and blur might be referring to the last part, “An absolute concept of beauty” Saying that the absolute concept of beauty (The view of our ‘god’, and what he thinks is right/beautiful) is actually quite vague and random, maybe. And then he makes the metaphor to the beauty of his former lovers eyes, and saying that the color (Or, beauty/view of our god) changes depending on how she was feeling (Or how humans were feeling in that point in history).
“Now I know a disease That these doctors can’t treat You contract it the day You accept all you see It is a mirror and a mirror is all it can be A reflection of something we’re missing”
This part seems to me that it’s about seeing the world through your own perception and not seeing it any other way, and accepting it that way as the truth (Which is what people tend to do). But the very last line makes it seem like he’s also describing the idea that his perception of the world is different, which explains the first two lines. He’s saying that everyone sees the world through their own perception, and his (Or to be accurate, whoever is supposed to be singing) perception is different, so they’re not understanding what he’s saying, and he may view that as a bad thing (“A disease”?). When you look out into the world all you can see is a mirror, because all you can see is your own perception. And that’s something no one else can change (“These doctors can’t cure”).
“And language just happened It was never planned And it’s inadequate to describe where I am In the room of my house Where the light has never been Waiting for this day to end”
Again he’s describing having a slightly different mind that thinks a bit different, maybe. He’s trying to describe the way he’s thinking but the human language just doesn’t fit his thoughts. So he’s stuck in a dark room, which means he doesn’t really know where he is, or maybe that others don’t know where he is, and so they don’t understand where he’s coming from and what he’s trying to say? As well as them not understanding him. And he’s waiting for the day to end, which may mean death, or it may mean that the next day is kind of ‘the answer’ or a way to explain things, a way for people to understand him.
“And these clocks keep unwinding And completely ignore Everything that we hate or adore Once the page of a calendar is turned it’s no more So tell me, then, what was it for? Oh, tell me, what was it for?”
The first two lines seem to describe how time moves on without our permission, and time doesn’t know if we have to go to work or if we’re seeing an old friend, the time has to move on and we can’t do anything about it. Time is just time, and that is all it is, we can’t change that or do anything about it. The next line is similar, saying that we have to accept that time is over, and we also can’t do anything about it. And then the very last two lines may be asking what we did with the time, or if it was worth it? Questioning life, maybe? Asking what all that time was really all about, the meaning of life, the meaning of time, the meaning of everything. I don’t think its supposed to be viewed as sorrowful or regretful, its just a question.