In the Cranberries song "Ode To MY Family" there's a line that I've always found curious. It reads "'Cause we were raised to see life as fun and take it if we can".
I'm not a native English speaker, but I don't think I've ever heard "to take life" in the meaning that seems to be intended here. On top of that, I know "taking a life" to be a common expression meaning to kill someone.
So my question is: does this line ring as morbid to a native English speaker as it does to me?
Doesn't sound morbid to me. In this context, I take it to mean, roughly:
See life as fun, and have as much fun as we can.
I had a friend who used to say:
When offered a slice of life, take the big piece.
It's a variant of, "Grab a big slice of life!"
Live large. Seize the day. See life as fun, and take it if you can.
I had always heard the line as “to see life as fodder”, which I thought was exquisitely poetic, and I was disappointed to learn that it is supposedly “to see life as fun”. I still hear it as “fodder”.
It has been years since this was asked, but I was just listening to the song and it stood out to me in lyrics I looked up as well. But on listening closely the lyric seems to be "take it if we get", which fits with simple values. I think it's because it's supposed to rhyme with "damn" that this error is made. Either that or I am listening into it incorrectly and its really just like the last answer.
Another lyric like that is "Unhappiness, where's when I was young" (how it's shown on lyrics websites), which seems to me to need to be whereAS. Unhappiness... (existing adult situation), whereas when I was young [blah blah].
