Interpret these phrases

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I thought it would be interesting what you people understand under some phrases that I encountered over the years. Now interpretations are a vague thing anyway so no understanding can be that wrong. Anyway, I'll post some phrases, others can post some too

"Tomorrow never comes until it's too late"
"And so she stood there, ovulating silently" (this one I think is one of the more hilarious and ridiculous ones)
"The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new"
"I see a red door and I want to paint it black"
"Show me what it's like, to dream in black and white"
"He who got lost without a trace, I'll name a street after you"

OK, i think i get the waiting and ovulating one, although it's very strange.
if HE disapeared, why would anyone name a street after YOU?
None of the others make any sense at all.

Are all of these song lyrics? The only one I recognize is from the Rolling Stones song "Paint It Black". It's about a person who's so depressed he doesn't want to see bright, happy colors anymore, but wants everything to be as black as his mood.

1. "Tomorrow never comes until it's too late"
"There's always tomorrow" is what people say when a difficulty has occurred and there's no more chance for the day. Say it's storming and you wanted to go on a picnic. You can go tomorrow. But, say the next day the weather is bright, warm and sunny but you can't go on a picnic anyway because you have to go to work and be inside all day. Then one could say, Tomorrow never comes until it's too late" meaning here's my chance, but it was over before it started.
2. "And so she stood there, ovulating silently" (this one I think is one of the more hilarious and ridiculous ones) This one is funny and refers to a woman who wants to marry and have kids and the man still wants to take his time. She has no time, because there is a finite set of ovulations in a woman's lifetime, so she's angry, but not saying anything. It's a clever statement.
3. "The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new". Yep, life is life sometimes filled with the dailiness of boring tasks - same old, same old. Even the sun, which signifies hope of a new day can't bring life to the boring sameness.
4. "I see a red door and I want to paint it black" The red door symbolizes the happy life behind it - whomever painted it doesn't mind attention to it - to their happiness because it is bright and cheery. The person wants to paint it black because he is feeling foul and wants to spread it to others.
5. "Show me what it's like, to dream in black and white" Dreaming refers to complete possibilities and black and white is linear, rigid, on/off thinking. So maybe the person who is the dreamer wants to get to know someone who thinks this way.
6. "He who got lost without a trace, I'll name a street after you" No idea

"Tomorrow never comes until it's too late" - about what Healher said.

"And so she stood there, ovulating silently" - I had no idea

"The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new" - An amusing way to put the fact that everthing was going on boringly normally, and while the sun was shining, this is taken not as an cheerful thing, but just a thing that must be; it's expressed by personifying the sun as if it didn't want to shine but couldn't choose not to.

"I see a red door and I want to paint it black" - Had no idea beyond the literal meaning

"Show me what it's like, to dream in black and white" - Had no idea of any deeper meaning

"He who got lost without a trace, I'll name a street after you" - No idea

A DJ Shadow lyric. A Rolling Stones lyric. A Samuel Beckett book.

Then I got tired of googling.

Song lyrics and book titles don't mean anything in a vacuum. Context is needed. The context of the rest of the song or the context of the book.

Metaphors are one of the few forms of communication I don't have probems interpreting. Janissy is correct about context, for someone who's never heard the whole song or read the lyrics the paint the re door black lyric could literally mean anything. In the conext of the song he's wondering how everyone can be so happy when he's so depressed but from the single line you've shown it could be about how he's seen a red door and would like to paint it black If I didn't know better I'd have thought you were trying to wind up some aspies

The only one really worth looking at is 'The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new', a very lovely line describing the author's ennui and acceptance of fate. Sounds like he's trying describe what the sun was doing in a humerous way too

"Tomorrow never comes until it's too late"-->live in the now?
"And so she stood there, ovulating silently" (this one I think is one of the more hilarious and ridiculous ones)-->I don't quite get this one...the woman wants to do it/have kids but doesn't have the means to?
"The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new"--->I'm not sure...
"I see a red door and I want to paint it black"-->I've understand that people paint their doors red for good luck (our garage door is red) and that black is a color of mourning/death...Not sure what to make of this though.
"Show me what it's like, to dream in black and white"-->I don't see things in black and white (clearly right and wrong) like you do
"He who got lost without a trace, I'll name a street after you--> you will be remembered?

I just read everyone elses thoughts on it. Interesting.

200 views and only 7 replies? Weak bros. Anyway, time for me to clear some stuff up. Some of those phrases maybe were better understandable with a bit of context, but they can stand on their own pretty well too, I think

"I see a red door and I want to paint it black"
Yeah, most people caught that one. Even if you don't know that Beatles song, the sentence does have a certain mood to it, regardless of context. Basically, a depressed guy doesn't want to be reminded that there are other, happy people in the world, and he wants to remove that reminder.

"Show me what it's like, to dream in black and white"
This is from the song "Unknown soldier" from Breaking Benjamin. Basically, it's a song about soldiers, and as I get it, the soldier dies and "dreams in black and white". Life is colorful, and now that he's dead, he can only see shades of grey.

"He who got lost without a trace, I'll name a street after you"
This is from the song "Propavshiy bez vesti" from DDT, a Russian song. Also a soldier song. During the war, many soldiers went out to protect their motherland and never returned. There are lots of streets and monuments dedicated to the unknown or lost soldiers, who could not be recovered. It kind of honors the people who go out and do something, not expecting any praise for it.

"The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new"
Yeah, someone caught that one, from a Samuel Beckett book. It's not so much that this sentence has any big significance or meaning, it's just the that it is written is so....deeply cynical. It may interest you that this guy had a really detached kind of way of writing, and this sentence is one of those signature examples of him.

"And so she stood there, ovulating silently"
This is also doesn't have any deep sense but the way it is written. It kind of confuses you in its ridiculousness. Ovulating silenty? As opposed to ovulating noisily? It's like saying "She stood there, digesting in peace", just an unnecessary addendum which dumbfounds you. And that's why it's sort of genius, in my opinion

"Tomorrow never comes until it's too late"
This one comes from the song "Six days" by....I forgot whom. The song is originally about the six days war with Israel, but this sentence is powerful enough to stand on its own. I've also thought about what it means. The closest I've come to a meaning is this: when something is really boring or unimportant, you say "Man, tomorrow can't come quick enough" because it seems that it's so far away. But if you need to do something important, time will fly by and before you notice it, it's tomorrow. Tomorrow came even though you may have wished for more time.


mkay, I'll need find some other quotes for you to analyze

hmmm. thought i was pretty good with metaphor. i'm enjoying the interpretations people supplied, because these had me pretty stopped. think some of them are very beautiful, though.

when I read the OP, I really wasn't sure what was expected.

edited: I guess I don't understand the point of coming up with interpretations to someone else's words.