Locky's English Playground: 10 Aug 2011

Wednesday, 10 August 2011

Song: Passing Afternoon -- Iron & Wine

After re-re-re-watching House M.D. season 4 finale Wilson's Heart tonight, feeling rather sentimental.

The original story told Wilson's girlfriend Amber was involved in a bus crash together with House and had her kidneys damaged.And because she took an excessive amount of Amantadine for her flu right before the crash, the Amantadine was not filtered out by the kidneys and bound with the protein, dialysis could not clear the drug from her system, and so she could only wait for death to arrive.

Image from media.tumblr.com

And the following video is the last few moments of Amber: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go3xkWPKtC0

In this video, I hear a beautiful song that I want to study deeper, Passing Afternoon by Iron &amp; Wine.

The slow-tempo song is quite difficult to understand, even for me, and I guess you will have to find out what you want the meaning to be by yourself, everyone should have a different interpretation.

What I can predict from the use of words, "passing", "a yard to burn", "drift away", "fallen leaves", "pass all our bodies", "them them go", "she's lost her wedding ring", "my hands remember hers", "she's sit and think of me", "Her baby sleeps in all our bones, so scared to be alone", this is a song which matches the video, it is a song of parting or death. Another interpretation is that this is in fact a song of seasons, based on the use of seasons such as "Summer", "Autumn", "Springtime", 'Winter", "mother", "children" and "baby", with Summer being the mother of Autumn, Autumn being the mother of Winter, Winter being the mother of Spring, and Spring being the mother of Summer.

Lyrics:

There are times that walk from you like some passing afternoon
Summer warmed the open window of her honeymoon
And she chose a yard to burn but the ground remembers her
Wooden spoons, her children stir her Bougainvillea blooms

There are things that drift away like our endless, numbered days
Autumn blew the quilt right off the perfect bed she made
And she's chosen to believe in the hymns her mother sings
Sunday pulls its children from their piles of fallen leaves

There are sailing ships that pass all our bodies in the grass
Springtime calls her children 'till she let's them go at last
And she's chosen where to be, though she's lost her wedding ring
Somewhere near her misplaced jar of Bougainvillea seeds

There are things we can't recall, blind as night that finds us all
Winter tucks her children in, her fragile china dolls
But my hands remember hers, rolling 'round the shaded ferns
Naked arms, her secrets still like songs I'd never learned

There are names across the sea, only now I do believe
Sometimes, with the windows closed, she'll sit and think of me
But she'll mend his tattered clothes and they'll kiss as if they know
Her baby sleeps in all our bones, so scared to be alone

Vocabulary:
sentimental -- (adj) disapproving too strongly influenced by emotional feelings
dialysis -- (n) [U] specialized a process of separating substances from liquid by putting them through a thin piece of skin-like material, especially to make pure the blood of people whose kidneys are not working correctly
Bougainvillea -- (n) [C or U] a climbing plant, common in hot countries, that has red and purple flowers

Bougainvillea
Image from blogspot

bloom (vb) [I] When a flower blooms, it opens or is open, and when a plant or tree blooms it produces flowers
drift (away) -- (vb) [I usually + adverb or preposition]to move slowly, especially as a result of outside forces, with no control over direction
quilt -- (n) [C] a decorative cover for a bed
hymn -- (n) [C] a song of praise that Christians sing to God
misplaced -- (adj) directed towards someone or something wrongly or in a way that does not show good judgment
tuck sb in -- phrasal verb [M] (UK also tuck sb up) to make someone comfortable in their bed, especially a child, by arranging the covers round them
fragile -- (adj) easily damaged, broken or harmed
shaded -- (adj) --from shade -- (vb) [T] to prevent direct light from shining on something
fern -- (n) [C] a green plant with long stems, leaves like feathers and no flowers

Ferns
Image from gregglover

Wednesday, 10 August 2011

Song: Passing Afternoon -- Iron & Wine

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