☝️ Key Points
- The song is about an addictive relationship.
- The person is compared to cocaine because they are equally addictive.
- The relationship is controlling and the person has control over the singer's life.
- The relationship has both positive and negative effects on the singer.
- The singer is completely infatuated with the person and can't get them out of their head.
Interpretation
The lyrics of the song "Kokain" by
Boris Bukowski are about an addictive relationship. The singer describes his dependence on a person whom he compares to the drug cocaine. The person is both his loss and his gain, his end and his beginning. He confesses that he is completely infatuated with her.
The relationship is portrayed as controlling, as if the person is directing his life. She is his engine and his source of energy. But what he gets from her is only borrowed, it is not lasting.
The person is compared to cocaine because she is equally addictive. She builds him up and tears him down at the same time. She is the substance his dreams are made of, but also his beginning and his ruin. She is his poison and his medicine.
The chorus "You are like cocaine, cocaine, you build me up and tear me down" repeats the metaphor and emphasizes the ambivalence of the relationship. The singer can't get the person out of his head and is addicted to her.
The lyrics convey the dependency and back-and-forth of an intense relationship that has both euphoric and destructive moments. The metaphor of cocaine illustrates the addiction and pull that the person has on the singer.