Question
Updated on
22 Nov 2018
- Spanish (Mexico)
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English (US)
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French (France)
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Japanese
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Question about English (UK)
What does "we do not want to be the snail or the nail, and we imagine the passing birds to have ultimate freedom" mean?
What does "we do not want to be the snail or the nail, and we imagine the passing birds to have ultimate freedom" mean?
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Deleted user
22 Nov 2018
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@estenopeica small thin piece of metal. However it is a metaphor phrased in a way that it may be open to interpretation of the meaning.
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Deleted user
Sounds like a metaphor, what context is this in?
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- Spanish (Mexico)
@ansi its an interview with morissey. this is the complete phrase:
Question: In your last concert in Lima, you sang “El cóndor pasa”. Why did you choose this song? Why is this song special?
ANSWER: I sense that it has great moral virtue for the people of Peru, and is an arm around the shoulder. We all want freedom, we do not want to be the snail or the nail, and we imagine the passing birds to have ultimate freedom. The song is obviously very old, but it still means so much because every single day all that we see and hear are people crying out for freedom. What makes it so hard to achieve?
Question: In your last concert in Lima, you sang “El cóndor pasa”. Why did you choose this song? Why is this song special?
ANSWER: I sense that it has great moral virtue for the people of Peru, and is an arm around the shoulder. We all want freedom, we do not want to be the snail or the nail, and we imagine the passing birds to have ultimate freedom. The song is obviously very old, but it still means so much because every single day all that we see and hear are people crying out for freedom. What makes it so hard to achieve?
Deleted user
Yes it is a metaphor. I think when he says ‘we do not want to be the snail or the nail’ means nobody wants to be trapped and feel small like a snail or a nail. We don’t want to have no options in our lives. We want to have freedom like the birds that can fly wherever they want.
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- Spanish (Mexico)
@ansi i need to translate this to spanish, so i need to be sure what exactly "nail" means here.
Deleted user
Nail I think is just a normal building nail that gets hammered down into wood.
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- Spanish (Mexico)
@ansi is it the "small, thin piece of metal" or is it like the body part, the kind of nails you bite.
Deleted user
@estenopeica small thin piece of metal. However it is a metaphor phrased in a way that it may be open to interpretation of the meaning.
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- Spanish (Mexico)
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