Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps

"You won't admitt you love me, and so
How am I ever to know,
You only tell me
Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.

A million times I ask you, and then
I ask you over again
You only answer
Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps"

Ok, for those of you who've been talking to me on the phone, this post is at last the final answer to the most recent Brokeback Mountain conterversy plauging me, and therefore also plauging those who converse with me regularly. To those of you who don't speak to me regularly on the phone - I promise to try to make this my last post about Brokeback Mountain ...for a while.

The question has been, since I recently saw the movie again on DVD over Easter - in the scene where Jack goes to Mexico, a song is playing in the background in Spanish. I thought I recongized the song. (I would like it noted here for the record that one can be obsessed with a movie and just because you happen to know a song that happens to be in the movie is purely coincidence and doesn't necessarily make you a freak.)

After the scene I would find myself humming the Spanish song, and with shock I thought that Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps? Cake released a CD in 1995 on their album Fashion Nugget (which was a highly influential album for me in my 10th grade year and I really recommend it. For a while it was all we played in the high school journalism office. Perhaps... has special meaning for me because of that year and a prank involving an answering machine.)

It struck me too, that the lyrics are stunningy appropriate for that scene. If you don't know what I'm talking about see the movie again - and you should see the movie again no matter what. (C'mon, seeing a movie once is like not seeing it at all.)

"If you can't make your mind up
We'll never get started
And I don't want to wind up
Being parted Broken Hearted

So if you really love me, say Yes
And if you don't, dear, confess
But please don't tell me
Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps"

My intense research has revealed that the song Quizás, Quizás, Quizás was written by Osvaldo Farrés in Cuba in 1947 and recorded by Nat King Cole in 1958, therefore making it non-anaronistic to the film (we call that "Period") and rerecorded by Cake in '95.

If you're interested in this it's easy to find a direct translation of the lyrics online. Posted here are the English lyrics as Cake sings them.

Being someone who cares about movies and loves, LOVES, when a film is done well, I hope this new knowledge of the lyrics to the incidental Spanish song brings you to deeper understanding of the charcter and closer to the message of the film.

I don't think it's a mistake that the lyrics reflect so well the character's state of mind and situation. As a friend said to me recently while embroiled in this discussion "everything in a good production is a choice." So you film and theatre fans who want to shrug at me and say to yourselves - "Man, she needs to get over it!" (and I do) is it possible that what's playing in the background in that scene has no impact on the greater movie? Could it be that I am over-analyzing this?

"Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps"

But I feel better knowing and sharing that knowledge with you.