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I'm wondering about this after listening to the song "Harpy Hare" by Yaelokre.

Lyrics go:

Harpy Hare, where have you buried all your children?

Tell me so I say

Harpy Hare, where have you buried all your children?

Tell me so I say

At first I interpreted "Tell me so I say" as

  • 'Tell me' I said (as in "it was me who said that")

Would that need a comma? Tell me, so I said

Then I see that it can also be interpreted as "Tell me so I can tell someone else".

Genius' lyrics list Yaelokre as major contributor so I assume no typos or missing commas.

Regardless of which one is correct in the song's context (feel free to tell me if you know though), does the first one have a name? This affirmation of what was just said?

Is it common? Archaic? Is it used or does it only work in writing? I feel like I've heard/read that structure before but I can't remember.

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    Or maybe it invoke a personal authority, as the Pharaoh saying "So it is Written, so it shall be done" in Charlton Heston's The Ten Commandments (1956)? Or alluding to Jesus's saying "Truly, truly, I say to you" as in John 5:24-25?
    – GratefulDisciple
    Commented Aug 26 at 13:14
  • @GratefulDisciple I think that's what I had in mind when I was talking about the first way I understood it.
    – Daviid
    Commented Aug 26 at 13:49
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    These are song lyrics, a form of poetry. There is no obvious meaning throughout the song; "so I say" may be added purely for rhythm or the sound of the sibilants and vowels. If you'd like to ask about more realistic uses of similar phrases, like Foghorn Leghorn's "I say I say" or Battlestar Galactica's "So say we all," etc., please edit to stick to prose communications that intend a direct meaning. (But nb that these two amount to little more than "that's just a thing they say.") I'll vote to close but can revert if edited to become answerable.
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Aug 26 at 15:44
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    I’m voting to close this question because poetry can't always yield a clear meaning, with or without semantic punctuation.
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Aug 26 at 15:45
  • @AndyBonner: Don't expect this Q to be salvaged! Apparently, Yaelokre is a storytelling project run by Keath Ósk, who's a Filipino songwriter-artist. Why do people upvote such thoughtless questions?
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Aug 26 at 16:43

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