Mitski - A Burning Hill Lyrics Meaning (2024)

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   #1 top rated interpretation:

   anonymous

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   See Also

   The Meaning Behind The Song: A Burning Hill by Mitski - Old Time Music

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   Mar 9th 2022!⃝

   I think it’s about pain as a whole, wanting to harm yourself ie: being a forest fire, being the fire and the forest. Feeling guilty, unloved, imperfect, and stressed. There are many lines stating that the singer has to be clean and neat, ex: wearing their white button-down, at least they can be neat and clean, possibly being forced to hide what their feeling behind this perfect facade. Which this reflects with the album name “Puberty 2” which all of these feelings can be caused by puberty and the people surrounding you during that time. To put it simply, I think this song is about abuse, depression, and self-harm.

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   #2 top rated interpretation:

   anonymous

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   May 9th 2022!⃝

   I think this song is about living with depression and the feeling of seeing soured friendships/relationships be the same without you. The "forest fire" part is saying, "I create the problems and I am being affected by the problems and I am the one in which the problems linger" and the "you are not there at all" part saying these people you once considered your friend never once cared and still do not.
   The second verse is about a feeling of numbness, of depression, in which you wake up everyday and put on your white button down. You love the littler things, you keep yourself clean and tidy your house when it needs tending, go to work, and go to sleep, but do none of these things because you want to. To live not because you think there is some sort of meaning or joy to be found, some goal or aspiration to achieve, some thing to create, some person to love, but to live because you were told to. Because suicide would be a burden, because death is dramatic.

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   #3 top rated interpretation:

   anonymous

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   Dec 8th 2021!⃝

   I think that the most famous line: I am a forest fire. "And I am the fire and I am the forest and I am a witness watching it" are talking about: Being the one who hurts (fire) , being the one hurting (forest) , and being the one that won't do anything against it( witness). It could mean that sometimes, you're responsible for you're pain. Another line that I interpreted was: "I stand in a valley watching it and you aren't there at all". I feel like this line shows that some people want to put the blame on others for not helping you.

4. anonymous

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   Oct 30th 2023!⃝

   So, a burning hill means alot, i assume that means being an autodestructive and implosive person, being to tired for care, being to depressive to accept being cared, being alone.
   The person knows that she is hurting herself, it hurts, but it cant be stoped, its about getting tired of skin, cutting yourself, but being to hurt that the pain in the skin feels less painful than the pain in the head, its about life, how long it can lasts but how fast it can go, its about self-harm and burnouts.

5. anonymous

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   Oct 5th 2023!⃝

   In her famous line, "I am a forest fire. I am the fire, and I am the forest, and I am the witness watching it", a forest fire is destructive, out of control, and destroying something so beautiful and full of life. Forests are associated with being bursting with life, important, beautiful, intricate, etc. However, she is the forest AND the fire. She is destroying herself but helpless when watching it burn, she's burning her life up. She's destroying herself and she knows that without the fire (depression), she is beautiful and full of life like what a forest is. The witness is her just watching what she is doing but after that lyric, Mitski says, "I stand in a valley watching it, and you're not there at all" the "you" is her realizing what she is doing but feeling powerless in stopping it therefore not doing anything about it. In a more relatable way, this could also be someone who is self-sabotaging everything in their life knowing the affects it is bringing. In a contrast opinion to others, her wearing a white button-down to be neat could be a sign of her wanting to clean up her destructive actions. Following with "and I'll love some littler things" can suggest that there will always be something small and hopeful beyond all of our uncertainties in life. That we are made for more than just regret and desperation, that we will always be capable of starting over.

6. anonymous

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   May 2nd 2023!⃝

   when saying “i am a forest fire i am the fire and i am the forest and i am the witness watching it” shes destroying and being destroyed and seeing it happen in fromt of her, but the person seeing it, maybe about an ex lover or a bad lover? she says shell wear a white buttom down and “i can at least be neat walk out and be seen as clean” this is to put up a facade of seeming fine, which i may say would be about the loss of her lover but with the lyric “im tired of wanting more” is most likely more in life not more in love, and the lover was there when she did want more in that buy now she has given up and confined to being seen as fone and normal.

7. anonymous

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   May 22nd 2022!⃝

   to add onto all of the ones here, it is the end of her album where she talks about her adult hood, and this signifies the vary end of her childhood where she has to watch it all burn to the ground and can now only enjoy the "little things" in her now adult life.

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