I didn't know that "pearls" equals "rice." Never have been in Somalia but I assume life there is extremely hard to deal with. But it's a miracle that Patti agrees with me.
Is why i posted the lyric for you and Patti, to avoid embarrassing concurrency between you and Patti.
I haven't had a new pair of shoes in 30 years and I understood this lyric!! ":O}
I think we may approach lyrics differently. Here's how I do it and you can judge for yourselves.
I always assume that the lyrics are intelligible and meaningful. I assume there is something that the song writer wishes me to understand. While the message maybe obscured, it may even lay between the lines,
I don't mind having to work a bit a understanding them.
When art reaches out to me, I try very hard to catch it's drift.
Put yourself on that road, being burn to the bone bending over every three steps to sift the dirt for SINGLE grains of rice, pearls for your little girl. You do this, knowing that every steps coast you more calories than you can gain for your child. you see the end game.
So unbearable you cry out to the heavens
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah means "Glory to God"
"theirs a stone in my heart" We usually speak of a stone in my shoe.
But she has no shoes.
Conscience rebels against her fate on that dusty burning road. and it hurts me like a pair of brand new shoes.
and blisters my soul.
Often as we see here there is no one to one equivalency between lyric and meaning.
To make sense of such creations we most often need to supply the bridge between what is being said and the intended meaning. Often we a left (deliberately) to supply the missing meaning.
We have never walked that road in Somalia, but most of us at on time or another have known the pain of ill fitting yet brand new shoes.
And yes there are many times when my efforts are in vain. Did the artist fail or did I ?
If we both do our best can we ever be said to have failed one another?
When we fail to meet one another what is left for us to do?
But cry out
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
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