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Can anybody explain the lyrics of the song of Mark Knopfler "postcards from paraguay"?
one thing was leading to the next
i bit off more than i could chew
i had the power to sign the cheques
it wasn’t difficult to do
i couldn’t stay and face the music
so many reasons why
i won’t be sending postcards
from paraguay
i robbed a bank full of dinero
a great big mountain of dough
so it was goodbye companero
and cheerio
i couldn’t stay and face the music
so many reasons why
i won’t be sending postcards
from paraguay
i never meant to be a cheater
but there was blood on the wall
i had to steal from peter
to pay what i owed to paul
i couldn’t stay and face the music
so many reasons why
i won’t be sending postcards
from paraguay
I am Taiwanese, I like the song as above very much, I wuold like to introduce this music to my friends, but it is very difficut to translate it through lyrics only. Please explain the song for me
My opinion is that he is an executive for a company or a bank, and he got in over his head financially - perhaps living a lifestyle that he couldn't keep up with, money wise - maybe trying to live the life that other people (friends, co-workers?) were living just to keep up.
At some point, he realizes that he's in deep. He's broke, and his obligations are due. Rather than face up and be humiliated, he figures out a way to get the money, and get out of the hole.
Mark Knopfler writes some pretty deep stuff, and you can't always take it at face value. When he references "robbing a bank", I'm don't believe he literally means that a bank was robbed with masks and guns, and perhaps it's more like he figured out a way to embezzle from the company (or bank) he worked for. It was very easy for executives to do this because they have "the power to sign the checks", and they are able to bury things to avoid detection.....at least for a while.
If you look at the time when this song was released, it was right around the time that it was discovered that many big corporations had problems with their personnel siphoning money from employee retirement funds, etc. There are a number of people out there who were counting on that money to retire, and now it's all gone, and it's not coming back.
It seems that he has remorse for what he did (I never meant to be a cheater), but he felt his personal obligations were more important. And here's where it gets fairly vague.
One could infer a few things. It's possible that he got caught, and got in trouble. He won't be sending postcards from Paraguay because he's in prison somewhere. It's possible that he knew he'd get caught, and killed himself to avoid humiliation and prosecution (it does happen), so he won't be sending postcards because he's dead. The most likely inference from the lyrics is that he took the money and fled, either because trouble was imminent, or because he knew it would eventually come. Perhaps Paraguay is a place where extradition is difficult (several countries have extradition treaties, but are they enforced?), or perhaps he's gone somewhere else but he always vacationed in Paraguay so you won't get an postcards this year.
Yeah, that's complicated, but I couldn't really come up with a simple explanation other than "He took some money that didn't belong to him" because it's just too open to interpretation.
Good luck!
Mark Knopfler - Steiger Award Bochum 12.03.2011