I Will Follow You into the Dark - Chorus

If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied
Illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs
If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark

Hello and welcome to Learning English with Lyrics, the podcast where we break down English language song lyrics to help improve your grammar, vocabulary, and general knowledge of English. I am your host Jake, and today we will be discussing the chorus of the song "I Will Follow You into the Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie. If you haven't listened to the first episode of this series, I highly recommend pausing here, and going back to listen to Episode 1 first. If you've never listened to this podcast, there is also an episode titled "Introduction" that I recommend starting with. Alright, it's time to get going! Let's jump right in.


"If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied"

We talked a little bit about "heaven" and "hell" in our previous episode, so I won't talk anymore about them here.

You might know the word "satisfied", but you may not understand what it means in this context. Normally, to be satisfied means that you are happy or content with something. If your boss is satisfied with your work, it means you have a done a good job and that he is pleased. If I am satisfied with my life, it means that I am finding the happiness or fulfillment that I am looking for in life. It's easy to understand what this means for a person, but how can a place be satisfied? In this case, it means that they are "satisfied" with the number of people that they have allowed to enter. There are "enough" people.

Since heaven and hell aren't physical places, but spiritual places, we wouldn't think that they would worry about having enough room or having enough space inside. What the singer is presenting here is a funny idea, that heaven and hell are simply locations like any other, and perhaps, they are full. There isn't room for anyone else.

Let's pause for a second and talk about the words "fill" and "full". When you use the verb "fill", it means that you are placing something into something else, until it reaches its limit, or its maximum capacity. For example, "I am going to "fill" my cup with coffee". This means I'm going to put coffee into my cup until the cup can no longer hold any more coffee. When someone is "full", that means that they are at the limit of what they can hold in their stomach. They have eaten enough food. If your arms are full, it means that you are holding enough things, and you can no longer hold anything else. This can get a little bit complicated though, when you add words at the end of "fill". For example, you can also "fill up" your cup. To fill "up" a cup, means to fill it to capacity. This is generally used when you already had something in your cup, and would like more. If I give you my cup and I say "Fill it "up" please", that means I'd like you make the cup full.

If I "fill in" something, that means that it is missing something else, and I will add the thing that is missing to it. I'll explain. If there is an empty space on a form for my signature, I can "fill in" the space by writing my signature. If there is a hole in my yard, I can "fill in" the hole by adding dirt. Similar to this, is the phrase "fill out", which means that you complete something, but more generally. For example, you can "fill out" a form with all the information that it is asking for. This is very general, and usually is referring to a series of things that you need to write. You generally don't "fill out" a single line or empty space. You will "fill in" a single line or empty space. If you have "filled in" all the lines in a form, you have "filled out" the form. It's confusing I know. Just remember: "Fill in" means something is missing and you want to add the missing thing. "Fill out" means to complete something that is written.

Let's move on.

"Illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs".

So to begin with, this is a continuation of our previous sentence. You'll notice that there isn't a subject. The subject is "heaven and hell". So you can read it as "Heaven and hell illuminate the no's" on their vacancy signs."

So what does this mean?

The image that we are supposed to think of here, is that of a motel. You're probably familiar with the words "motel" and "hotel", but maybe you don't know the difference. The difference between a motel and a hotel is small, but generally speaking, a motel is the same thing as a hotel, but smaller and cheaper, and generally the door to your room is on the outside of the building instead of on the inside. You can usually park your car right in front of your room. Motels are normally found in small towns or near large highways.

Since they are so small, a motel will have a sign in front of it so that you know if they are "full" or not. It's usually a neon sign, with just a single word on it: "VACANCY". If a place is unoccupied, that is to say, nobody lives or works there, you can say that the place is "empty" or "vacant". So the word "vacancy" means that there are "empty" or "unoccupied" rooms that are available. However, if the motel is having a particularly busy night, it's possible that all of their rooms are rented. Directly in front of the word "vacancy", usually unlit, is the word "NO". When the motel is full, they light up the word "NO" changing the sense of the phrase completely. "NO VACANCY" means that they have no available rooms and cannot take any more customers.

So when the singer says that heaven and hell "illuminate the nos on their vacancy signs", he means that th turn on the "NO" part of the sign, to indicate that they are completely full. Nobody else can come in.

And here, I have a confession to make. My first few times listening to this song, even as a native English speaker, the word "nos" really confused me. It's not often that you hear the word "no" pluralized. So what I heard instead, was the word "nose" as in, the thing that you smell with. This song was a bit confusing for me.

Getting back to the lyrics, the singer has presented us with a rather cute and funny image. Heaven and hell are normally very serious places. We are talking about dying after all! But the singer has given us an image of heaven and hell as motels that have both decided they are full and are refusing to take any more customers. It's funny, but certainly sad, especially for our dead lovers.

The next line, the singer changes direction a bit. He presents us with a second hypothetical or imaginary situation. He starts with the conditional statement "If there's no one beside you, when your soul embarks"

When the singer says "beside you", it can have two different, but connected meanings. The most literal version means "beside you" as in "next to you", which you are probably already familiar with. The second meaning is more figurative, and it means "beside you" as in "with you". That is to say, together. We could change the sentence to say "If there is nobody with you when you die". That might sound like the same thing, but it really isn't. It's not talking about his physical proximity to his lover, but rather, his presence with her, generally speaking.

"If there's no one beside you, when your soul embarks" is the next part, and as I just explained, it means "when you die". But how do we get death from the phrase "when your soul embarks"?

You probably already know the word "soul", but just in case you don't, I'll explain. The "soul" is the part of a person that is not their body. If your body was destroyed, it would be the part of "you" that remains. It is your "spiritual" self, instead of your "physical" self. In most religious traditions there is some idea of a soul in every person. When our physical bodies die, it is our "souls" which go into the "afterlife", whatever that might be.

Let's move on to "embark". Embark is a great word, and it has two primary meaning. The first meaning is to "begin" or to "set off" on something. Generally this is something very long, and perhaps difficult. For example, you cannot "embark" to the store, unless you plan on the journey being long and dangerous. You can however "embark on a journey to the moon!" or "embark on a quest to save the princess!". You can also "embark" on something in your life, such as "embarking on a new career". The second meaning of "embark" is to get on a ship or a plane. If you are at the embark and you hear, "It is now time for passengers to embark.", it's time to get on your plane.

Boats come up a lot when we're talking about death. There's a very common image of boarding a boat that takes you to the land of the dead. This is the most likely meaning in our song.

So when the singer uses the word "embarks" here, we understand that his love's soul is setting out on their journey into the afterlife. And with heaven and hell both being closed, who can say what that final destination will be?

And so what does this sad singer offer to his love? We come finally to the title of our song. "Then I'll follow you into the dark". You'll notice that there's a subtle difference here between the phrase he says and the title. The title of the song is "I Will Follow You into the Dark", but he actually sings "I'll follow you into the dark". It's a pretty common contraction. Honestly, people rarely say "I will" do something. Most of the time we just use "I'll". So what is he saying here? If all of these things happen, if you are alone and nobody will take you in or help you after you die, don't worry...I will come with you, I will be by your side, I will go through this difficult thing with you. It's the ultimate expression of love. He won't just love them while they are living, but after they have died as well. Even if that means simply sitting in the dark together.

I hope you that enjoyed this week's episode, join us next time, where we will be embarking on a long and treacherous journey through verse 2. I hope that you'll join us, have a great week.