Art of Interpretation

[irimiko]

I remember very well when I first saw a music video for the song "Nothing compares to you" (Sinead O'Connor) on TV. At that time, I studied French at a secondary school and didn't know a word in English. But the song title had been fortunately translated into Russian which led me to think that the song was about ... God. In spite of the fact that I grew up in a family of communists and atheists, and God was not mentioned in my home at all. So, I'd been sure that this song was about God until my student years when my mates whose first foreign language was English laughed to scorn my subaudition. They explained to me that the song was about a love break and parting. Nevertheless, every time I hear it my feeling remains the same and I wonder if native speakers might understand this song in such a way, at least in theory?

Comments

[gs_silva]

I don't.

In the USA, where most people believe in God, and atheists at least understand how believers think about the world, if you lose your faith in God, people don't treat you with sympathy. They treat you with hostility. The song is about someone grieving her breakup, and although she feels that no one around her truly understands, at least they're still nice about it.

There are other songs in English that could be about God! Um. I can't think of them right now. Some people believe that "Hotel California" is about the devil, but actually it's about being famous, here on regular Earth.

[irimiko]

Thank you for the response!
You're certainly right but texts (especially poetic ones) are often multilayered and sometimes you can reveal very unexpected meanings and implications. Likely, I've always been too keen on it.

As for "Hotel California", I've never drilled down into the lyrics but this insight (a picture of hell) seems to be quite witty, at least)

[larryhammer]

At the time it came out, there were many people in the US who did understand it as about God, or at least potentially also about God. This has never as far as I know been a majority opinion.

[irimiko]

Thanks a lot for your input! That means my guess wasn't entirely groundless.
Looking at her wonderful face it was hard not to think about God: she was, she is, divinely beautiful.