Gondry

At some point, I was obsessed with the song “Gondry”. The obsession has been over already but yesterday I listened to this song again and suddenly I felt the necessity to write about this song. The music video is visually pleasing, the melodies are ear-twisting, everything about this song is perfect.

Gondry is a song by Hyukoh, a Korean indie band, best known for their songs “Tomboy, “Comes and Goes”, and “Wi Ing Wi Ing”. It was released in 2015, featured in the album “22”. I was super obsessed, maybe because knowing that this song was inspired by Michel Gondry, the man behind “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, one of many films that linger in my head even after years.

Between dawn’s shadows

Running lights, looking like a bonfire

Glow of the cool morning

Over there at the bottom, is our nest

Every story always starts in the morning. As the sun rises, darkness slowly disappears, replaced with a ray of lights that look like a bonfire. Bonfire in Bahasa Indonesia is “api unggun”. It is a symbol of — I don’t know — maybe, togetherness? Then, he continued with “our nest”, a safe place where we can feel warm any time. Despite the irony of mornings, cold but also warm at once, the time when the dark is lifted and a new day is running ahead of us, life always feels alright and stays in the right place.

Is this silence an opportunity,

Or my wish, or just my own thoughts?

Should I sit still or interfere

But what if it’s a mistake?

I am quite confused by the change of sequence in the second verse. Instead of continuing with the concept of togetherness, I think this verse is trying to tell us about loneliness. Two people sit together, yet silence is all that surrounded them. The silence between two people can also mean two things; they are comfortable with each other or they feel awkward toward each other. Should we sit still or interfere? He does not know which one the other person prefers. We can do nothing or do something, both can be a mistake. He is too afraid to move because of the possibility of a change in the future that might not be in his favor. At this moment, I am reminiscing a film titled “Mr. Nobody”, which explains how doing nothing also lead to something. Also, the series “Bandersnatch”, which implies that not choosing does not mean things will go alright because the universe will pick a future for you anyway.

Atop of the morning sunrise

Laying down and legs crossed, let’s just stay like this

Like in a warm blanket

When sun rays cover us, we will melt away

For me, “sun rays” is the symbol of the future. He is still trying to freeze the moment. Everything will melt away if we go on, he said. Let’s just be like this, staying in our safe place. Let’s not let that cruel thing called time eat us up.

We will come back right away

After just one night

A light that watched over our young nights

Let’s go see it again

Promise me, you will not leave. Promise me, you will be back again. I think the idiom “a light that watched over our young nights” means the morning, the start of something new. It’s like saying “let’s live through tomorrow together again, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that…”

Sitting on the sunshine

Sunshine is over me, she gets over me

Make us feel alive

Sunshine is over me, she gets over me

“Sitting on the sunshine”, could it mean living the day?

She will love

All the above

Past and present, fast forward

Anything that is going to happen, he wants to believe that she will love it. No matter if it is in the past, in the present, or in the future.

Who will define?

Whatever they say

We stay the same

“Let’s not hear what others say”. His only hope is for the time to stop at the exact moment, so they can be trapped there forever.

Yesterday, today, and also tomorrow

In the future still staying the same, still staying the same

We are too afraid to approach tomorrow. We are too coward to reminisce yesterday. We are too doubtful to live today to the fullest. We just want to freeze the time… However, none of it is in our control. Things might go well, things might go wrong. All we can do is just hoping that everything will stay the way it is and always be in our favor.

I would also like to share quoted paragraphs from a short story titled “Surat yang Tak Pernah Sampai” that is featured in the book “Filosofi Kopi” by Dee Lestari. I personally think that these paragraphs can be an additional explanation of what I’m trying to deliver.

Kalau saja hidup tidak berevolusi, kalau saja sebuah momen dapat selamanya menjadi fosil tanpa terganggu, kalau saja kekuatan kosmik mampu stagnan di satu titik, maka tanpa ragu kamu akan memilih satu detik bersamanya untuk diabadikan. Cukup satu.

Satu detik yang segenap keberadaannya dipersembahkan untuk bersamamu, dan bukan dengan ribuan hal lain yang menanti untuk dilirik pada detik berikutnya. Betapa kamu rela membatu untuk itu.

Akan tetapi, hidup ini cair. Semesta ini bergerak. Realitas berubah. Seluruh simpul dari kesadaran kita berkembang mekar. Hidup akan mengikis apa saja yang memilih diam, memaksa kita untuk mengikuti arus agungnya yang jujur tetapi penuh rahasia. Kamu, tidak terkecuali.

Gondry can be a love song, a lonely song, a depressing song… I am not sure, though? Nevertheless, since I wrote this while thinking of the film “Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind”, I suppose I relate to the song that way. The shadows of Joel and Clementine walking in a snowstorm linger vividly. They walk together to the future, which they are not sure whether it is going to be better or they will just repeat the whole history. I just want to say, whatever will happen in the future, good luck to them, good luck to you, and good luck to me. Let’s always walk on the flowery path.