Art of Love by Ovid and Heart Don’t Stand a Chance by Anderson Paak

Heart Don't Stand a Chance

(Ancient Text by Ovid, translated by Humphries) and Heart Don't Stand a Chance (Contemporary Song by Anderson Paak)

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The refrain of Heart Don’t Stand a Chance speaks to the confidence that Ovid purports in the line “be a confident soul.” Paak telling the woman he is in pursuit of that “[her] heart [doesn’t] stand a chance” is confident because he is saying it before he has even, as Ovid describes it, “capture[d] [his] find.”

Also, the language that Paak uses is very representative of how Ovid is conceptualizing love in ‘The Art of Love’ as a game. As Ovid purports, “Women can always be caught; that’s the first rule of the game.” Paak’s line, “I’m waiting for the white flag” is an analogy between him pursuing a woman to that of a battle, although, given the context of a hip-hop/RnB, upbeat song, it is obviously a playful phrase, more similar to a game than a battle.

Further, both Ovid and Paak think that if you woo a woman well, she’ll inevitably succumb. The last line of the Ovid passage says that a well-wooed woman is less likely to not be won over than birds are to not sing in the spring while Paak’s refrain says that the woman he is pursuing doesn’t stand a chance- essentially saying the same thing.

Ancient Text Excerpt:

Now you must learn (this is hard) how you can capture your find/…/
First: be a confident soul, and spread your nets with assurance. /
Women can always be caught; that’s the first rule of the game./
Sooner would birds in the spring be silent/…/
Than would a woman, well-wooed, refuse to succumb to a lover;

Key Lyrics:

So let me ask you
Am I dreaming?
Mind on a tip of a cloud
Is it real as the stone in your crown?
Say, ain’t nobody towing my jag
Don’t it feel like it’s been far too long, girl?
Your heart don’t stand a chance
I’m waiting for the white flag


Click for full lyrics

Ooh, champagne pourin’ down
Arms, legs wrapped around you
Ooh, champagne, let it fall down
Arms, legs keep grabbing

See, I be catchin’ you starin’, be careful
The idle mind is a dangerous place to be left in
But keep your eyes on me
Your heart don’t stand a chance
It feels like it’s been far too long
Your knees can’t hold your legs
Your feet just want to pace
The eyes keep me all in a trance
Let me ask you
Would you leave it all in the back of your head
Or all in the palm of my hand?
Ain’t nobody holding you back
Don’t it feel like it’s been far too long, girl?
Your heart don’t stand a chance
Your knees just want to break
Your eyes keep me all in a trance
And let me ask you
I know the approach is so far from what you’re used to
But you know it
And do I hold a candle to the last one over your moon?
Baby, of course I do
And I’m not closing my tab
Don’t it feel like it’s been far too long, girl?
Your heart don’t stand a chance

Ooh, champagne pourin’ down
Arms, legs wrapped around you
Ooh, champagne, let it fall down
Arms, legs keep grabbing

Two-step in the corridor
Spinning the greatest hits of Hall & Oates
Open of chronic smoke
I know my time will flee
But your heart don’t stand a chance
It feels like it’s been far too long
The moment is all that we have
My meter should be up by the half
A ticket is the least of my cares
So let me ask you
Am I dreaming?
Mind on a tip of a cloud
Or is it real as the stone in your crown?
Say, ain’t nobody towing my Jag
Don’t it feel like it’s been far too long, girl?
Your heart don’t stand a chance
I’m waiting for the white flag
You’re talking with the blunt in your hand
And won’t you pass that?
I know, in the morning
The sunlight cover your wounds
But I’m hoping that I look the same as the way you always knew
Baby, of course, I flew
But I’m not over what we had
Don’t it feel like it’s been far too long, girl?
Your heart don’t stand a chance

Ooh, champagne pourin’ down
Arms, legs wrapped around you
Ooh, champagne, let it fall down
Arms, legs keep grabbing

I remember being tumbled around
and not being able to get to the surface where the air was
And looking down and seeing my body
spinning around in the white water

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