So, I'm casting about wildly for something new to memorize...

[conuly]

Life's easier when you have a few poems, songs, and movies stored in your head in case you get stuck in line, 'k?

And I come across this song.

A few years ago now, in Latin, we studied grammar, grammar, and still more stinking grammar. One of the things we studied, of course, was the future subjunctive. We've got the future more vivid, and the future less vivid, or the should-would.

When we studied this, I thought the translation was a bit archaic. Nobody really says "if I should, then I would", do they? Indeed, the only quote I could think of was "If I should die before I wake", which is pretty much par for the course when studying Latin.

But here I am, staring at the following verse/half-verse (most versions I'm seeing cut these verses in half):

My Father always had told me
That money would set me free
If I would murder that pretty little Miss
Whose name was Rose Connelly

And no matter how much I know what it means is "If Rose gets murdered by you, you'll get off for it", I keep reading it as "When you murder her, you'll get off for it, but not if you do anything else."

I didn't even know I *did* that in my speech!

Or that I thought this much about stupid little things. No wonder I can't sleep at night!

...

Though that might actually be more related to my custom of sleeping in the afternoon whenever possible, now that I think of it....

Comments

[innerbrat]

It's been a while since I've said this, but: I DO! ('If I should, than I would')

Also, I have absolutely no idea where you got that second interpretation. can you explain it further?

[conuly]

I didn't explain it well. It sounds to me, always, like the dad is asking his son to kill Rose. "If you would just kill her already!". And then if I move away from that, it definitely still sounds like he expects him to kill her, that's the future more vivid. And then, when I move away from *that*, I get the feeling that he's specifically saying "If you kill her, you'll go free". The specificity makes it sound as though he doesn't think the kid'll go free for shoplifting, say. I missed the first sentence in my post, though.

[innerbrat]

OK. OK, I think I get that, Except my natural train of thought would terminate at the "If you kill her, you'll go free" without the implication you took from that. Um.

[innerbrat]

It's been a while since I've said this, but: I DO! ('If I should, than I would')

Also, I have absolutely no idea where you got that second interpretation. can you explain it further?

[conuly]

I didn't explain it well. It sounds to me, always, like the dad is asking his son to kill Rose. "If you would just kill her already!". And then if I move away from that, it definitely still sounds like he expects him to kill her, that's the future more vivid. And then, when I move away from *that*, I get the feeling that he's specifically saying "If you kill her, you'll go free". The specificity makes it sound as though he doesn't think the kid'll go free for shoplifting, say. I missed the first sentence in my post, though.

[innerbrat]

OK. OK, I think I get that, Except my natural train of thought would terminate at the "If you kill her, you'll go free" without the implication you took from that. Um.