Hi,
Please explain me the meaning of this sentence which is part of lyrics for certain song.
God help you if you are a phoenix, and you dare to rise up from the ash, a thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy, while you are just flying past - Ani DiFranco
People are envious, especially when you achieve something remarkable.
I have looked up Phoenix. Phoenix was a legendary bird who lived 500 years, burned itself to ashes, and then rose alive to live another period.
Yes, people are always envious of someone's achievements. Please have a critical look on this sentence,
God help you if you are a phoenix, and you dare to rise up from the ash, a thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy, while you are just flying past - Ani DiFranco.
''God help you if you are a phoenix'', in this sentence human is being compared to phoenix. ''and you dare to rise up from the ash'', in this sentence I think ash stands for destruction or failure. Perhaps writer is trying to say that a person can achieve remarkable things even if he seems to be a loser for some time, all he has to have is determination. a thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy, while you are just flying past, I think this sentence means when that loser stars to rise from failures people will become jealous. Am I right?
The very few people that it makes unhappy are what we call saints.
If someone who is down ,and almost out , makes a remarkable recovery in his/her fortunes it makes most people very unhappy.
The very few people that it makes happy are what we call saints.
This Ani Difranco lyric is a fantastic explanation of society.
A Phoenix is a mythological creature that at the end of its life circle, catches fire and is then reborn from its own ashes. Ani is explaining that in the present day should someone end up defeating the circumstances that kept them down (this is where the phoenix reference comes in referring to being reborn from one's own ashes), mostly likely they will be met with a defensive hostile nature and seen merely as a threat. The entire song has great references to the unnecessary jealously in society. Just before the phoenix line is the following,
"and god help you if you are an ugly girl
course too pretty is also your doom
cause everyone harbors a secret hatred
for the prettiest girl in the room"
Ani shows that sometimes people don't need a legitimate reason to hate, they just do.
Hope this helps!
Very nice...GJ