As you have scof­fed down all the Chri­st­mas dishes and deli­ca­cies that you pre­pa­red, I will try to swe­eten your time with a song “Can­dy” sung by Rob­bie Wil­liams.

This song is a lead sin­gle of the ninth stu­dio album of Rob­bie Wil­liams. Despi­te swe­et title “Can­dy”, it’s rather bit­ter­swe­et.  It tells a sto­ry of a girl, who is very attrac­ti­ve and has no boun­da­ries. We can com­pa­re her to a fla­me, which looks quite marvel­lo­us, but can be dan­ge­ro­us at the same time.  Gen­tel­men, you bet­ter be care­ful with girls like a figu­re from ‘Can­dy’.

I invi­te you all to get to know abun­dan­ce of myste­rio­us phra­ses and tri­via (cie­ka­wost­ki), which you can find in this song.

Zwroty & wyrażenia

Witness

In the first line of the song Rob­bie sings that he was the­re to wit­ness (to obse­rve) how Can­di­ce is doing and he is able to see her true face, real natu­re.

I was the­re to wit­ness
Candice’s inner buisness

Byłem tam świad­kiem
Wewnętrz­nych spraw Can­di­ce

To wit­ness = być świad­kiem (prze­stęp­stwa, ata­ku, ale tak­że roz­wo­ju spo­łecz­ne­go, zmian tech­no­lo­gicz­nych), doświad­czyć.

Exam­ples:

Did any­one wit­ness the attack? = Czy kto­kol­wiek był świad­kiem tego ata­ku?

They were stay­ing in the capi­tal at the time of the riots and wit­nes­sed seve­ral stre­et bat­tles. = Prze­by­wa­li w sto­li­cy w cza­sie zamie­szek i byli świad­ka­mi paru bitew ulicz­nych.

He arri­ved home just in time to wit­ness his bro­ther being taken by the poli­ce. = Przy­był do domu w porę, aby być świad­kiem, jak jego brat był zabie­ra­ny przez poli­cję.

This uni­ver­si­ty has wit­nes­sed quite a few chan­ges over the years. = Przez lata ten uni­wer­sy­tet doświad­czył nie­jed­ną zmia­nę.

This verb can also mean being pre­sent at an event to sign your name as a pro­of that it hap­pe­ned or that it was done cor­rec­tly.

To wit­ness = poświad­czyć.

Exam­ple:

Her will was drawn up by a soli­ca­tor and wit­nes­sed by two col­le­agu­es. = Jej wola zosta­ła spo­rzą­dzo­na na piśmie przez adwo­ka­ta i poświad­czo­na przez dwie kole­żan­ki z pra­cy.

The is also ano­ther meaning, which can refer to faith.

To witness/to give a wit­ness = dawać świa­dec­two (np. wia­ry chrze­ści­jań­skiej).

Exam­ple:

She gave per­so­nal wit­ness to her faith in Christ. = Dała swo­je oso­bi­ste świa­dec­two wia­ry w Chry­stu­sa.

Notice

Can­di­ce is a girl, who enjoys when men pay atten­tion to her  and admi­re her figu­re. We can assu­me, that rain­bows and ponies rela­te to the parts of her body. That also indi­ca­tes, that her rela­tion­ships with men are only based on phy­si­cal inte­rest.

She wants the boys to noti­ce
Her rain­bows, and her ponies

Chce żeby chłop­cy zauwa­ży­li
Jej tęcze i jej kucy­ki

To noti­ce = zauwa­żyć (zauwa­żyć, że coś ist­nie­je, zdać sobie spra­wę z cze­goś).

Exam­ples:

I noti­ced a crack in the ceiling. = Zauwa­ży­łam pęk­nię­cie na sufi­cie.

He not­cied (that) the woman was sta­ring at him. = Zauwa­żył, że kobie­ta gapi­ła się na nie­go.

Liberate

In this line we find out, that when parents put effort into brin­ging up the­ir offspring it is always worth and rewar­ded even­tu­al­ly.  We can read ‘water’ as a sym­bol of reward.

Libe­ra­te your sons and dau­gh­ters

Wyzwól­cie swo­ich synów i cór­ki

To libe­ra­te  = uwal­niać, wyzwa­lać.

Exam­ples:

Find some­one who comes from a coun­try which has been libe­ra­ted within the past 50 years. = Znajdź kogoś, kto pocho­dzi z pań­stwa, któ­re zosta­ło wyzwo­lo­ne w prze­cią­gu ostat­nich 50 lat.

He died befo­re the city was libe­ra­ted in 1918. = Umarł zanim mia­sto zosta­ło uwol­nio­ne w 1918 roku.

‘To libe­ra­te’ can be also used, when we want to say in humo­ro­us way, that some­bo­dy has sto­len some­thing.

To libe­ra­te = ukraść ( kie­dy chce­my okre­ślić kra­dzież w zabaw­ny spo­sób).

Exam­ple:

She libe­ra­ted tho­se spo­ons from a restau­rant last week. = Uwol­ni­ła (ukra­dła) te łyż­ki z restau­ra­cji w zeszłym tygo­dniu.

Self-esteem & vertigo

The girl seems to be a fem­me fata­le and beha­ves quite bipo­lar. On the other hand she doesn’t belie­ve in her own abi­li­tes and worth, she doesn’t respect her­self and she feels, that she is una­ble to balan­ce.

Got no self-este­em and ver­ti­go

Nie ma żad­ne­go poczu­cia wła­snej war­to­ści i zawro­tów gło­wy

Self-este­em = poczu­cie wła­snej war­to­ści.

Exam­ple:

The com­pli­ments she rece­ived after the pre­sen­ta­tion boosted her self-este­em. = Kom­ple­men­ty, któ­ry­mi zosta­ła obsy­pa­na po pre­zen­ta­cji pod­nio­sły jej poczu­cie wła­snej war­to­ści.

Ver­ti­go = zawro­ty gło­wy (spo­wo­do­wa­ne np. lękiem wyso­ko­ści).

Exam­ple:

She can’t stand heights and has always suf­fe­red from ver­ti­go. = Ona nie zno­si wyso­ko­ści i od zawsze cier­pia­ła na zawro­ty gło­wy (z tego powo­du).

Be made of something

Then she is full of her­self and per­ce­ive her­self as a prin­cess, becau­se she thinks she is made of can­dy and eve­ry­bo­dy sho­uld tre­at her like a tre­asu­re.

Cos she thinks she’s made of can­dy

Bo myśli, że jest zro­bio­na ze sło­dy­czy

Be made of some­thing = być zro­bio­nym z cze­goś.

Exam­ples:

Your heart is made of sto­ne. = Two­je ser­ce jest (zro­bio­ne) z kamie­nia.

What fabric is your dress made of? = Z jakie­go mate­ria­łu jest zro­bio­na two­ja sukien­ka?

We use ‘be made of some­thing’ when the mate­rial the sub­ject con­sist of doesn’t chan­ge during the pro­cess of making it.

When the mate­rial chan­ges during that pro­cess, we use ‘be made from some­thing’.

Be made from some­thing = być wypro­du­ko­wa­nym z cze­goś.

Exam­ples:

Che­ese is made from sour milk. = Ser jest pro­du­ko­wa­ny z kwa­śne­go mle­ka.

Pla­stic is made from petro­leum. = Pla­stik pro­du­ko­wa­ny jest z ropy naf­to­wej.

Ring a ring of roses

Ring a ring of roses refers to the nur­se­ry rhy­me ( = przed­szkol­na rymo­wan­ka), folk­song and play­gro­und sin­ging song.

Its Polish equ­iva­lent is ‘Kół­ko gra­nia­ste’. Howe­ver, English ver­sion is pro­ba­ble to has its roots in Gre­at Pla­gue (= Wiel­ka zara­za), which took pla­ce in the King­dom of Englad in 1665–1666. It was the epi­de­mic of bubo­nic pla­gue (dżu­ma).

Sne­ezing, fal­ling down, rosy rash nd coughing is like­ly to have some­thing to do with symp­toms of bubo­nic pla­gue. Posies (= bukiety/ wiąz­ki kwia­tów) would mean posies of herbs (= wiąz­ki ziół), which were car­ried in order to pro­tect and redu­ce the smell of the dise­ase.

That expla­ins why the first line of he nur­se­ry rhy­me was used in this song. Who­ever gets to clo­se to that girl can get hurt or sick.

Ring a ring of roses
Who­ever gets the clo­sest

Może zra­nić
Kogo­kol­wiek, kto się do niej zbli­ży

Hurricane

Got a hur­ri­ca­ne
At the back of her thro­at

Ma hura­gan
Na koń­cu gar­dła

Accor­ding to Wil­liams him­self it might mean, that she swe­ars like a sailor.

The­re is also ano­ther meaning of it. Sin­ger says only that she did some­thing else and it invo­lved seaman as well, but he doesn’t name it lite­ral­ly.

Victim

Even her own fami­ly was a vic­tim of her.

Mother was a vic­tim

Mat­ka była ofia­rą

Vic­tim = ofia­ra (prze­stęp­stwa, napa­du), ofia­ra – ktoś pono­si kon­se­kwen­cje cze­goś.

Exam­ples:

The chil­dren are the inno­cent vic­tims of the figh­ting. = Dzie­ci są nie­win­ny­mi ofia­ra­mi kłót­ni.

The new drug might help save the lives of can­cer vic­tims. = Nowy lek może pomóc oca­lić życie ofiar raka.

Our local hospi­tal has beco­me the latest vic­tim of the cuts in govern­ment spen­ding. = Nasz lokal­ny szpi­tal stał się ostat­nią ofia­rą cięć w wydat­kach rzą­du.

Moving bricks

Here we can find out ano­ther thing abo­ut the back­gro­und of her life. Her father is being descri­bed here as a drug sel­ler.

Refe­ren­ce to Bri­xton (district in the Lon­don Boro­ugh of Lam­beth in South Lon­don)  is well-cho­osen, becau­se Bri­xton is cal­led ”the drugs capi­tal of Lon­don”.

Father beat the sys­tem
By moving bricks to Bri­xton

Ojciec roz­bił sys­tem
Przez sprze­da­wa­nie nar­ko­ty­ków w Bri­xton

Accor­ding to Urban Dic­tio­na­ry, moving bricks = to sell drugs, often times in par­king lots.

As you will

Accor­ding to Rob­bie first words of the line  — ‘As you will’ is a refe­ren­ce to Ale­ister Crow­ley, who was an English occul­tist, cere­mo­nial magi­cian and his words ‘Do what thou will’.

They were sup­po­sed to show how to bear (radzić sobie) with other people. It means that the ori­gins of our will have an influ­en­ce on the direc­tion our will cho­ose.

As you will, she’ll be the who­le of the law

Jeśli chcesz, ona będzie całym pra­wem

The­se words can mean, that this girl can be easi­ly direc­ted by some­one, becau­se she is pas­si­ve and let people deci­de on her behalf (= w jej imie­niu).

As you see am enter­ta­ining song you can hear on a radio isn’t that sim­ple when it comes to under­stand and inter­pret it.

To sum up, this song is abo­ut a girl, who­se life is quite mes­sed up – she is a fem­me fata­le and has a mise­ra­ble back­gro­und. At the end of the song we still have mixed feelings abo­ut her.

Do you like Rob­bie and his songs?

What do you think abo­ut our les­son?