Oh! You want to know why I hate you today. It will undoubtedly be less easy for you to understand than it will be for me to explain, for you are, I believe, the most beautiful example of feminine impermeability one could ever encounter.
We had spent together a long day that had seemed short to me. We had indeed promised that we would share all of our thoughts with one another, and that our two souls would henceforth be one -- a dream that isn't the least bit original, after all, if not that, dreamed of by all men, it has been realized by none.
The father's eyes said: "How beautiful it is! How beautiful it is! You'd think all the gold in this poor world was on its walls." -- The eyes of the little boy: "How beautiful it is! How beautiful it is! But it's a house only people who aren't like us can enter." -- As for the eyes of the smaller child, they were too fascinated to express anything other than a stupid and profound joy.
Song-writers say that pleasure makes the soul good and softens the heart. The song was right this evening, as regards me. Not only was I moved by this family of eyes, but I also felt a little ashamed of our glasses and our carafes, which were larger than our thirst. I turned my gaze toward your's, dear love, to read my thoughts there; I plunged into your so beautiful and so bizarrely gentle eyes, into your green eyes, inhabited by Caprice and inspired by the Moon, and then you said to me: "I can't stand those people over there, with their eyes wide open like carriage gates! Can't you tell the head-waiter to send them away?"
So difficult is it to understand one another, my dear angel, and so incommunicable is thought, even between people in love!
Well, after the entire story, what can I say, but I'll try anyway and agree with what most have said. This is an amazing song. The Cure were brilliant.
Well, after the entire story, what can I say, but I'll try anyway and agree with what most have said. This is an amazing song. The Cure were brilliant.
The singer is disillusioned about his lover because he believed that if you're soul mates they'll always know and understand each other perfectly. Sort of like some psychic connection and the other person will understand and fill your needs perfectly. Thinking you'll always think and feel the same by some mystical romantic force.
The singer is disillusioned about his lover because he believed that if you're soul mates they'll always know and understand each other perfectly. Sort of like some psychic connection and the other person will understand and fill your needs perfectly. Thinking you'll always think and feel the same by some mystical romantic force.
It turns while he thinks the beggars are admiring her like a brilliant star, she is disgusted by them and wants them to go away. Their thoughts are completely different which shatters the illusion of "soul mates" he had. He also finds her thoughts are actually rather ugly and maybe she's not a beautiful person after all.
The last lines "no one ever knows or loves another" are a bit harsh, but points out that the idea of a psychic love connection is garbage. You can never really know exactly what someone else is thinking or how they see things even if you think you do. If you're counting on "soul mates" that always understand and love one another perfectly then you're in for a bad surprise over and over again. A simple view of love with "soul mates" is infantile and dumb.
My personal take is that yes, you can love someone else, but they'll always think differently than you. You'll never truly understand them 100% of the time. If you agree on many of the important things, can accept the differences, can help each other, and communicate a lot you might have a chance. The soul mates thing is easy to fall into and believe when first falling in love, but it will wear off sometime. After it wears off then your relationship will be in trouble if that's all you've got.
I think Smith must've been into French lit when he was in school.
@MeurtreScene I find it interesting that in the Baudelaire version they were at a restaurant (the sort where one would might expect a Monty Python skit to occur; perhaps for dessert they had "wefeh-seen meents"), looking outside the window at the poor family, while the couple is also outside in the song. Also, it's the fancy restaurant that has the poor family impressed, rather than the girl. In both cases, the girl's cruel response horrifies the narrator, as well as shocking him because he thought...
I think Smith must've been into French lit when he was in school.
@MeurtreScene I find it interesting that in the Baudelaire version they were at a restaurant (the sort where one would might expect a Monty Python skit to occur; perhaps for dessert they had "wefeh-seen meents"), looking outside the window at the poor family, while the couple is also outside in the song. Also, it's the fancy restaurant that has the poor family impressed, rather than the girl. In both cases, the girl's cruel response horrifies the narrator, as well as shocking him because he thought she would feel just as he did.
To quote the Pet Shop Boys (though admittedly they blatantly intended this as sarcasm): "Love is a bourgeois construct, just like they said at university." <g>
This is what the song was inspired by:
C. Baudelaire - Les Yeux des Pauvres
--> English translation
The Eyes of the Poor
Oh! You want to know why I hate you today. It will undoubtedly be less easy for you to understand than it will be for me to explain, for you are, I believe, the most beautiful example of feminine impermeability one could ever encounter.
We had spent together a long day that had seemed short to me. We had indeed promised that we would share all of our thoughts with one another, and that our two souls would henceforth be one -- a dream that isn't the least bit original, after all, if not that, dreamed of by all men, it has been realized by none.
In the evening, a bit tired, we wanted to sit down in front of a new café that formed the corner of a new boulevard, still strewn with debris and already gloriously displaying its unfinished splendors. The café was sparkling. The gaslight itself sent forth all the ardor of a debut and lit with all its force walls blinding in their whiteness, dazzling sheets of mirrors, the gold of the rods and cornices, chubby-cheeked page-boys being dragged by dogs on leashes, laughing ladies with falcons perched on their wrist, nymphs and goddesses carrying on their heads fruits, pies, and poultry, Hebes and Ganymedes presenting in out-stretched arms little amphoras filled with Bavarian cream or bi-colored obelisks of ice cream -- all of history and all of mythology at the service of gluttony.
Right in front of us, on the sidewalk, a worthy man in his forties was standing, with a tired face, a greying beard, and holding with one hand a little boy and carrying on the other arm a little being too weak to walk. He was playing the role of nanny and had taken his children out for a walk in the night air. All in rags. The three faces were extraordinarily serious, and the six eyes contemplated fixedly the new café with an equal admiration, but shaded differently according to their age.
The father's eyes said: "How beautiful it is! How beautiful it is! You'd think all the gold in this poor world was on its walls." -- The eyes of the little boy: "How beautiful it is! How beautiful it is! But it's a house only people who aren't like us can enter." -- As for the eyes of the smaller child, they were too fascinated to express anything other than a stupid and profound joy.
Song-writers say that pleasure makes the soul good and softens the heart. The song was right this evening, as regards me. Not only was I moved by this family of eyes, but I also felt a little ashamed of our glasses and our carafes, which were larger than our thirst. I turned my gaze toward your's, dear love, to read my thoughts there; I plunged into your so beautiful and so bizarrely gentle eyes, into your green eyes, inhabited by Caprice and inspired by the Moon, and then you said to me: "I can't stand those people over there, with their eyes wide open like carriage gates! Can't you tell the head-waiter to send them away?"
So difficult is it to understand one another, my dear angel, and so incommunicable is thought, even between people in love!
Well, after the entire story, what can I say, but I'll try anyway and agree with what most have said. This is an amazing song. The Cure were brilliant.
Well, after the entire story, what can I say, but I'll try anyway and agree with what most have said. This is an amazing song. The Cure were brilliant.
The singer is disillusioned about his lover because he believed that if you're soul mates they'll always know and understand each other perfectly. Sort of like some psychic connection and the other person will understand and fill your needs perfectly. Thinking you'll always think and feel the same by some mystical romantic force.
The singer is disillusioned about his lover because he believed that if you're soul mates they'll always know and understand each other perfectly. Sort of like some psychic connection and the other person will understand and fill your needs perfectly. Thinking you'll always think and feel the same by some mystical romantic force.
It turns while he thinks the beggars are admiring her like a brilliant star, she is disgusted by them and wants them to go away. Their thoughts are completely different which shatters the illusion of "soul mates" he had. He also finds her thoughts are actually rather ugly and maybe she's not a beautiful person after all.
The last lines "no one ever knows or loves another" are a bit harsh, but points out that the idea of a psychic love connection is garbage. You can never really know exactly what someone else is thinking or how they see things even if you think you do. If you're counting on "soul mates" that always understand and love one another perfectly then you're in for a bad surprise over and over again. A simple view of love with "soul mates" is infantile and dumb.
My personal take is that yes, you can love someone else, but they'll always think differently than you. You'll never truly understand them 100% of the time. If you agree on many of the important things, can accept the differences, can help each other, and communicate a lot you might have a chance. The soul mates thing is easy to fall into and believe when first falling in love, but it will wear off sometime. After it wears off then your relationship will be in trouble if that's all you've got.
Ha ha, "feminine impermeability." I love it.
Ha ha, "feminine impermeability." I love it.
I think Smith must've been into French lit when he was in school. @MeurtreScene I find it interesting that in the Baudelaire version they were at a restaurant (the sort where one would might expect a Monty Python skit to occur; perhaps for dessert they had "wefeh-seen meents"), looking outside the window at the poor family, while the couple is also outside in the song. Also, it's the fancy restaurant that has the poor family impressed, rather than the girl. In both cases, the girl's cruel response horrifies the narrator, as well as shocking him because he thought...
I think Smith must've been into French lit when he was in school. @MeurtreScene I find it interesting that in the Baudelaire version they were at a restaurant (the sort where one would might expect a Monty Python skit to occur; perhaps for dessert they had "wefeh-seen meents"), looking outside the window at the poor family, while the couple is also outside in the song. Also, it's the fancy restaurant that has the poor family impressed, rather than the girl. In both cases, the girl's cruel response horrifies the narrator, as well as shocking him because he thought she would feel just as he did.
To quote the Pet Shop Boys (though admittedly they blatantly intended this as sarcasm): "Love is a bourgeois construct, just like they said at university." <g>