Day: January 24, 2013

Caveat: Can You Run?

Background Noise / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Quotable

What I'm listening to right now.

The Steeldrivers, "Can You Run."

I think this song has a Civil War theme involving slaves running for freedom across the battle lines, which was a frequent occurance, but I find the song oddly resonant at a personal level – despite my own utterly different life – without really paying close attention to the lyrics.

It's just a well-done song, I guess: I really like the line "chase the taste of bondage from my tongue."

There's smoke down by the river
Hear the cannon and the drum
I've got one thing to ask you honey
Can you run?

You know I hate to ask so late
But the moment's finally come
And there won't be time to change your mind
Can you run?

(chorus)
Can you run, to the freedom line of the Lincoln soldiers?
Where the contraband can be a man
With a musket on his shoulder
I've got to stand up tall before I'm done
Wrap these hands of mine around a gun
And chase the taste of bondage from my tongue
Can you run?
Can you run?

I'm takin nothin with me
We've just got time to beat the sun
And the boys in gray are never far away
Can you run?

(repeat chorus)

There's smoke down by the river
Hear the cannon and the drum
And even if I die, I've got to try
Can you run?

(repeat chorus)

Can you run?
Can you run?

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Caveat: 꿈이 있다면 절대 포기하지마라

한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean) / 한국어 속담 (Aphorisms & Proverbs)


꿈이        있다면          절대      포기하지마라
dream-SUBJ have-TRANSF-IF absolute surrender-NEG-COMMAND
If [you] have a dream don’t ever surrender.
“Don’t ever give up your dreams.” Grammatically, I don’t really get the -다- particle in the first clause’s verb 있다면. My grammar bible insinuates that there’s something called a “transferative” marker, hence my labelling it as TRANSF above, but I don’t see how it contributes any nuance of meaning to the proverb – I think 있으면 would mean exactly the same thing, with the IF (“conditional” marker) attached directly to the verb. Indeed, google translate offers no change of meaning in the two versions – not that that means anything at all.
Yea, well, I mentioned this proverb in my [broken link! FIXME] rant-of-despair the other day, so I decided to look at it properly. Context: giving up a dream.

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