If you want to ful­ly attend my today’s les­son, you need three things – a video of “Bit­ter­swe­et Sym­pho­ny”, head­pho­nes (or indul­gent neigh­bo­urs) and the lyrics of the song in front of you.

My today’s cho­ice is not just ano­ther swe­et song abo­ut life. Inste­ad, it will be a bit­ter­swe­et song abo­ut… life. “Bit­ter­swe­et Sym­pho­ny” by The Verve is a brit-pop clas­sic tune con­si­de­red by many as anthems among anthems. In fact, this pie­ce has influ­en­ced a gre­at many of kids sin­ce the late 90’s.

“Bit­ter­swe­et Sym­pho­ny” has the poten­tial to make you feel as if you are the most impor­tant per­son in the world and all of your sins have been for­gi­ven.

How come, you’d ask?

I stron­gly enco­ura­ge you to watch the sta­te of the art “Bit­ter­swe­et Sym­pho­ny” offi­cial music video and see it for your­self.

Zwroty & wyrażenia

Bittersweet

Richard Ashcroft’s first line goes:

Cau­se it’s a bit­ter­swe­et sym­pho­ny, this life

Bo to życie to słod­ko-gorz­ka sym­fo­nia

Oh, yes, inde­ed.

A word bit­ter­swe­et is an adjec­ti­ve, an oxy­mo­ron, which means both bit­ter and swe­et to the taste.

For exam­ple:

This Chi­ne­se food has a very spe­ci­fic taste, some­thing like bit­ter­swe­et. = Te chiń­skie jedze­nie ma bar­dzo spe­cy­ficz­ny smak, coś jak słod­ko-gorz­ki.

Bit­ter­swe­et can be some­thing both ple­asant and pain­ful or regret­ful.

For exam­ple:

Tom has bit­ter­swe­et memo­ries of his last rela­tion­ship. = Tom ma dobre i złe wspo­mnie­nia o swo­im ostat­nim związ­ku.

To make ends meet

Then we get less opti­mi­stic:

Try to make ends meet

Pró­bu­jesz zwią­zać koniec z koń­cem

To make ends meet means to have just eno­ugh money to pay for the things that you need.

If some­bo­dy finds it hard to make ends meet, they have pro­blems living on the money they earn.

It is an idiom. Sadly eno­ugh, most people will get the meaning of it at once given the cur­rent eco­no­mi­cal situ­ation in the world…

For instan­ce:

It is hard for Tom and Har­riet to make ends meet the­se days and I think we sho­uld help them. = Tom i Har­riet mają teraz trud­no­ści finan­so­we (cięż­ko im zwią­zać koniec z koń­cem) i myślę, że powin­ni­śmy im pomóc.

Slave

Later on, we hear some even more wor­ry­ing news:

You’re a sla­ve to money then you die

Jesteś nie­wol­ni­kiem pie­nię­dzy, a potem umie­rasz

A sla­ve = a per­son who is legal­ly owned by some­one else and has to work for them, e.g.: Some­ti­mes I think he tre­ats his wife like a sla­ve. = Cza­sa­mi myślę, że on trak­tu­je swo­ją żonę jak nie­wol­ni­ka.

We say: a sla­ve of/to sth = nie­wol­nik cze­goś, e.g. : She is a sla­ve to fashion. = Ona jest nie­wol­ni­kiem mody.

Down the road

This expres­sion appe­ars in the song in the first ver­se.

I mean:

I’ll take you down the only road I’ve ever been down

This may mean:

Zabio­rę cię kawa­łek dalej, na dro­gę któ­rą dobrze znam

Here it just can sim­ply mean = I’ll take you along the only road I’ve ever been down.

Exam­ples:

He lives just along/down this road. = On miesz­ka kawa­łek dalej na tej uli­cy.

Adam from down the road. = Ten Adam, któ­ry miesz­ka na tej uli­cy.

We don’t want to go down that road. = Nie chce­my iść tą dro­gą.

Vein

Last two lines of the first ver­se go like this:

You know the one that takes you to the pla­ces

Whe­re all the veins meet, yeah

Wiesz, tę, któ­ra pro­wa­dzi w miej­sca

Gdzie spo­ty­ka­ją się wszyst­kie myśli

A word vein can be both a noun and verb.

A few words on a vein as we have it in the song:

Most com­mon­ly, a vein is refer­red to as a tube that car­ries blo­od to the heart from the other parts of the body; any blo­od ves­sel.

So, accor­ding to the song, whe­re do all the veins meet? Is it a heart or some­thing else?

Or may­be this phra­se has rather a sym­bo­lic meaning?

Vein is also a sty­le or a tem­po­ra­ry mood, e.g.:

The ope­ning sce­ne was a bit vio­lent, but the rest of the film con­ti­nu­ed in a com­ple­te­ly dif­fe­rent vein. = Pierw­sza sce­na była tro­chę bru­tal­na, ale resz­ta fil­mu była utrzy­ma­na w kom­plet­nie innym kli­ma­cie.

Mould

In the cho­rus, Richard Ash­croft sings repe­ate­dly:

I am here in my mould

Jestem ule­pio­ny z tej gli­ny

Or:

I can’t chan­ge my mould

Nie zmie­nię się

What does he mean?

If some­one is from or in a par­ti­cu­lar mould, they have the cha­rac­te­ri­stics typi­cal of a cer­ta­in type of per­son, e.g.:

She is cast in a very dif­fe­rent mould from her sister. = Ona jest zupeł­nie inna niż jej sio­stra.

A mould (AmE mold) also means =

= sha­pe, form, pat­ter, design, con­ta­iner, e.g.: My mother bakes an excel­lent cake in a ring mould. = Moja mama pie­cze świet­ne cia­sto w okrą­głej for­mie (do pie­cze­nia).

From one day to the next

Also in the cho­rus, we hear:

But I’m a mil­lion dif­fe­rent people

Jestem milio­nem róż­nych ludzi

An expres­sion from one day to the next (or from day to day) we use when some­thing chan­ges befo­re each day hap­pens, e.g.:

Jake lives from one day to the next – he never knows what he’ll be doing tomor­row. = Jake żyje z dnia na dzień – on nigdy nie wie, co będzie robił jutro.

Recognise

In the second ver­se you can hear the verb to reco­gni­se

I need to hear some sounds that reco­gni­se the pain in me

Muszę usły­szeć dźwię­ki, któ­re roz­po­zna­ją we mnie ból

To reco­gni­se =

= to know some­one or some­thing becau­se you have seen, heard, or expe­rien­ced them befo­re, e.g.:

When I went to my scho­ol reu­nion, I didn’t reco­gni­se some of my old clas­sma­tes. = Kie­dy poje­cha­łem na szkol­ny zjazd, nie roz­po­zna­łem nie­któ­rych z moich daw­nych kole­gów z kla­sy.

Cleanse

Here’s ano­ther good line:

I let the melo­dy shi­ne, let it cle­an­se my mind

This means:

Pozwa­lam błysz­czeć melo­dii, niech oczy­ści mój umysł

Noti­ce that:

To cle­an­se = to make some­thing com­ple­te­ly cle­an, e.g.: The nur­se will care­ful­ly cle­an­se your wound. = Pie­lę­gniar­ka ostroż­nie oczy­ści two­ją ranę.

Also, meta­pho­ri­cal­ly spe­aking:

To cle­an­se = to make some­one or some­thing moral­ly cle­an or pure, e.g.: I real­ly need to go on holi­day to cle­an­se my mind and rest. = Muszę jechać na waka­cje, żeby oczy­ścić swój umysł i odpo­cząć.