While reading a book this morning I had my Just the Instrumentals Please playlist on as background music. I like having such playlists playing while reading as it helps me stay focused on the reading. This particular playlist has a lot of music by the band Khruangbin in it. Three whole albums of theirs in fact.
One of the songs in this playlist is called Pelota, it is off Khruangbin’s 2020 album Mordechai. Pelota is the Spanish word for ball.
There are repetitive lyrics in this song that go:
Ahorita yo Puedo ser una pelota
Putting that into Google Translate yields me the following translation into English:
Right now I I can be a ball
That phrase “I can be a ball” got stuck in my head and got me thinking. Balls are objects that get thrown around, kicked around. In the context of the lyric, it got me thinking, is the writer objectifying themselves? Do they think a ball to be thrown around or kicked around?
But then I thought, the word ball can also mean to “have a good time” aka “having a ball” or more formally “a kind of lavish party”. So an alternative reading of the lyrics in Pelota would be “I can be a good time” or “I can be a party”.
So I propose a variation on the lyrics:
Right now I I can be a ball at a ball having a ball
Ain’t word association fun?