Don't Smoke In Bed

nina=life

Nina is singing about knowing her husband is cheating on her. She knows he smokes in bed after sex and has found some evidence to confirm her suspicions. Or it involves a warning about leaving a trail of what you have been up to. To smoke in bed is to leave a butt lying around, to potentially set light the mattress- a metaphor for burning ( and destroying) the matrimonial vow. Her voice carries the tinge of disappointment and regret, bitterness and suppressed anger. But also the message that even if one gets deceived one can still move on and find safer waters- to love again or even marry again (I'll find a hand- in marriage). In some recordings towards the end her voice carries such pathos, such pain one wonders if she has experienced this greatest of betrayals- wonderful really cause otherwise how would she sing such beautiful music? Suffering ain't so bad when its changed into something so memorable. At least for those of us just listening...

Wow, Blixen, I never thought of it like that. I just always thought that it was a failed marriage, and she knew it would never work. So she just left. But she still cared about him, so she told him to not smoke in bed because a lot of people fall asleep while having a smoke in bed, which can lead to a fire. There doesn't necessarily have to be infidelity involved, it's just that the marriage didn't work, so she's leaving him. But she still cares for him, which is why she gives him this last piece of advice. This sort of makes sense of the line "I'm packing you in like I said". To me, that says that she's talked to him about the unhappy marriage, and told him that she might leave, and if she did, she would pack him in(in the covers of the bed) before she leaves.