Lyrics for dilate as interpreted by aur0ra

dilate Lyrics
life used to be life-like
now it's more like show biz
i wake up in the night and i
don't know where the bathroom is
and i don't know what town i'm in
or what sky i am under
and i wake up in the darkness
and i don't have the will anymore to wonder

and everyone has a skeleton
and a closet to keep it in and
you're mine
every song has a you
a you that the singer sings to
and you're it this time
baby, you're it this time

when i need to wipe my face
i use the back of my hand
and i like to take up space
just because i can
and i use my dress
to wipe up my drink
you know, i care less and less
what people think

and you are so lame , you know
you always disappoint me
it's kinda like our running joke
but it's really not funny
i just want you to live up to
the image of you i create
i see you and i'm so unsatisfied
i see you and i dilate

so i'll walk the plank
yeah, i'll jump with a smile
if i'm gonna go down
i'm gonna do it with style
and you won't see me surrender
you won't hear me confess
'cause you've left me with nothing
but i've worked with less

and i learn every room long enough
to make it to the door
and then i hear it click shut behind me
and every key works differently
and i forget every time
and the forgetting defines me
that's what defines me

when i say you SUCKED my brain out
the ENGLISH translation
is i am in LOVE with you
and it is NO fun
but i DON'T use words like love
'cause words like that DON'T MATTER
but don't look so OFFENDED
you know, you should be FLATTERED

i wake up in the night
in some big hotel bed
my hands grope for the light
my hands grope for my head
the world is my oyster, you know
the road is my home
and i know that i'm better
i'm better, i'm better off alone

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  • 33 Comments
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bleedmedry
05-15-2002

Rated 0 
i love this song. its one of my favorites by ani. the lyrcs are just amazing.

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Lusyphur
06-04-2002

Rated 0 
"so i'll walk the plank
yeah, i'll jump with a smile
if i'm gonna go down
i'm gonna do it with style
and you won't see me surrender
you won't hear me confess
'cause you've left me with nothing
but i've worked with less"
that gets me everytime i lissin to it.

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sara_rachel
07-18-2002

Rated 0 
*but don't look so offended, you know you should be flattered.*

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OhMyFuNkyStaRz
07-30-2002

Rated 0 
i always wanna sing this song to my ex.

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halimeda2day
08-17-2002

Rated 0 
This for sure is an angry ani tune, but we're all feeling it sometimes right girls?
The line I relate to most is: " I am in love with you and it is no fun, but i dont use words like love cuz words lie that dont matter." because unfortunately being in love isn't always fun.

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stephiebabe07
10-12-2002

Rated 0 
"I just want you to live up to the image of you I create. I see you and I'm so unsatisfied, I see you and I dilate."

mmm.

fucking great. best song by far.

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.bright.eyed.girl.
04-30-2003

Rated 0 
mmhumm..my favorite one from ani...absolutly perfect... lyrically and musically...the plank verse always gives me the chills..just because ive felt that way for so long, i think every girl will fit this song sometime in her life. "and i know that i'm better. i'm better, i'm better off alone"....oh so true, but we can never be satisfied with being alone.

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brokensky
07-02-2003

Rated 0 
when i say you sucked my brain out the english tanslation is i am in love with you but it ain't no fun.

explains my life right now to perfection. god he sucks.
she is amazing and this is one of my all time favs.

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Lixxy
04-19-2004

Rated 0 
This song is about creating a perfect guy in your mind, than being dissapointed when your guy doesnt live up to what you have created..

"just want you to live up to
the image of you i create
i see you and i'm so unsatisfied
i see you and i dilate "

i know that i have def. felt this way
I <3 Ani Difranco
she is an amazing song writer

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Hedges
06-04-2004

Rated +1 
I always look at this song as Ani using her life on the road as a metaphor for her relationships. Life on the road is a completely evolving, always different at each turn and she sees her relationships as being the same while wishing for some kind of stability.

"every key works differently and i forget everytime"

btw/ i love playing this song on guitar (to bad i can't sing it). Her dropping the low E string down to an A to form an amazing resonating, strong bass note ... i love it.

This is a beautiful song.

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Lilacdove
09-27-2004

Rated 0 
I love the energy...it is a perfect song when you have are in the mood to hate an ex lover.

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clairebaby
10-26-2004

Rated 0 
when i say you SUCKED my brain out
the ENGLISH translation
is i am in LOVE with you

<33333 i SO feel that way. lol.

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GoOgOoGiRL77
10-30-2004

Rated 0 
"when i say you SUCKED my brain out
the ENGLISH translation
is i am in LOVE with you
and it is NO fun
but i DON'T use words like love
'cause words like that DON'T MATTER
but don't look so OFFENDED
you know, you should be FLATTERED"

One of my favorite Ani songs.

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beautifulfukc
01-27-2005

Rated 0 
k, i love this song and any other ani song just as much as the next person but you're really not saying anything about the meaning of the song by leaving a post that is just the lyrics copied and pasted without any interpretation

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atwaneikwa
05-04-2005

Rated 0 
thank you beautifulfukc! I'm sick of reading how much people love the song without any personal insights to the meaning. this site is called songmeanings. not songsyoulike. I say post only if you can contribute. (although I'm going against myself here in this little rant)

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clairebaby
05-08-2005

Rated 0 
^ oh shut the fuck up.

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beautiful.disaster
05-08-2005

Rated 0 
this song has to be about how pissed she is after she knows things didnt work out..and he must have been the reason for that. either he wasnt interested, or didnt want to be with her because she was always on the road.


whichever, an awesome DiFranco song.

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bleedingmaskarah
06-30-2005

Rated 0 
I have the problem in this song. Men never live up to what I hope for.

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rachiecakies
07-26-2005

Rated +1 
I never understood this stanza until now-
"i learn every room long enough
to make it to the door
and then i hear it click shut behind me
and every key works differently
and i forget every time
and the forgetting defines me
that's what defines me"

it's about thinking things will be different and ignoring past experiences to hope things will be different, but they aren't. forgetting is her way of making the same mistake over and over again.

i have had this cd for a while and it's gotten me through a few breakups, but by far- this breakup has helped me understand this stanza the most.

this song is so fucking beautiful.

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Ani_Smith
06-02-2006

Rated 0 
when i say you SUCKED my brain out
the ENGLISH translation
is i am in LOVE with you
and it is NO fun

I've been there with this girl lately... I don't want to feel for her the way I do, but can't get it to go away. It's horrible... I love Ani

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Sickerth
06-08-2006

Rated 0 
"You've left my with nothing
But I've worked with less"

This is brilliant.. Fxcking amazing!

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city212girl
06-28-2006

Rated 0 
I love your intrepretation rachiecakies! I believe that is exactly what that stanza means. And that is a big part of falling for someone you cant have, doing it again.....

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missme
12-11-2006

Rated +1 
This is such an amazing, empowering song. She's trying to get over a man she knows was bad for her - she knows she's stronger than being hung up on him.
I especially love the lines:

"and you are so lame , you know
you always disappoint me
it's kinda like our running joke
but it's really not funny
i just want you to live up to
the image of you i create
i see you and i'm so unsatisfied
i see you and i dilate"

I feel that, completely. It's so easy to be in love with someone, but you're not quite sure why, because they always let you down. They don't live up to the perfect image you have of them in your head.

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dixy
11-11-2007

Rated 0 
Ugh, this song is just so amazing, and powerful. Not surprising for Ani at all.

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sumeragi_slut
11-29-2007

Rated +1 
What I don't get is why so many people responding to this song take it to be angry. To me, it speaks more to an introspection. The lyrics that, if read straight from a page without Ani's guitar or voice to color them, could seem resentful, are delivered, if anything, indifferently when she actually sings them: "You've left me with nothing, but I've worked with less", exempli gratia. All the times I've seen her perform live, all the recordings I've heard of this song, her tone doesn't convey anger or hatred when she sings this verse. If anything, she seems to be trivializing the fact that the person she's singing to has either literally or figuratively desolated her. This song speaks more to a sense of loneliness to me. It may have a bitter, ironic edge, but the core of the emotion itself seems a barrenness in my opinion.

Confer: "Not A Pretty Girl": "I am not an angry girl, but it seems like I've got everyone fooled, Every time I say something they find hard to hear, they chalk it up to my anger, never to their own fear."

I don't think Ani would ever identify a single song of hers as coming solely from one, broad, ambiguous emotion. Her narrative voice is usually quite intimate and nuanced.

Also, I think this song has less to do with the "man" everyone likes to identify (Ani's bisexual: yes, much of the album Dilate was purportedly inspired by a relationship she had with a man, but you CANNOT whitewash or pigeon-hole an artist like Ani) and more to do with Ani's own internal turmoil: "And I just want to you to live up to the image of you I create, I see you and I'm so unsatisfied, I see you and I dilate." This line speaks more to Ani's awareness of the fact that she's created an ideal of what a romantic partner "should" be. She's recognizing a disconnect of her inner narrative and external reality.

I see this song more as her coming to terms with the fact that reality is never going to live up to her expectations; she concludes that she's "… better off alone." Not that she's better off with another "man", or with a woman, or with anyone else, or with someone who can fulfill her romantic ideal, or with the ideal itself: alone.

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