What is the meaning of the line one inch of love is one inch of shadow love is the shadow that ripens the wine Its from the pink Floyd song Set the controls for the heart of the sun?

Answer 1

The lyrics of the Pink Floyd song "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" borrow extensively from ancient Chinese poetry, particularly that of the Late T'ang Dynasty.

These are quotes from ancient Chinese poet Li Shangyin: The Poet of Illicit Love, which are used in one form or another in "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun"

'Watch little by little the night turn around'

'Countless the twigs which tremble in the dawn'

'Two swallows in the rafters hear the long sigh'

'One inch of love is an inch of ashes'

"When Li Shangyin wrote 'One inch of love is an inch of ashes', he was giving voice to the despair and disappointment of love -- a potent line in both Chinese and English, but at the end of the day a straightforward expression of thwarted love. By altering the line to 'One inch of love is one inch of shadow', Waters completely transforms Li Shangyin's original intent into something almost sinister. Taken in conjunction with the line that follows, 'love is the shadow that ripens the vine', Water's observation on love is reminiscent of the darker poetry of William Blake. The deepest and most important human emotions are not the wholesome elements they purport to be, but a dark and insidious source of unhappiness. What kind of fruit would be ripened by such a love? When he ends 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' with the question, 'Knowing the sun will fall in the evening, / Will he remember the lessons of giving?', was Waters groping for an early answer to the selfishness of love?"