How Can You Be Sure?

The speaker sounds caught between dependence and rejection. They describe feeling worn down, hungry, drunk, and indebted, while questioning how someone close to them can remain cheerful. The repeated question, “How can you be sure?”, gives the song an anxious, unsettled mood. By the end, the speaker insists they no longer want the other person, but the repetition may make this sound more like an attempt to convince themselves than a calm decision.

The image of “running down the hill” suggests events slipping out of control, while being “battered and brought to the ground” conveys exhaustion or defeat. “So much of me lies in your eyes” implies that the speaker’s sense of self depends heavily on how the other person sees them. Their hunger, drunkenness, and unpaid debts may describe real difficulties, but they also help express a broader feeling of need and instability.

The lyrics leave the relationship’s situation unclear. The speaker may fear being abandoned, resent the other person’s apparent happiness, or be pushing them away while still feeling deeply attached. The shift from asking whether they will meet again to repeating “I don’t want you” creates a contradiction rather than a neat resolution. It could signal anger, self-protection, or a genuine decision; the words do not settle which.