I've been wondering about this particular lyric in the song 'Toss a coin to your Witcher' from the new Netflix series 'The Witcher'
The verse goes like this:
They came after me
with masterful deceit
Broke down my lute
and they kicked in my teeth
While the devils horns
minced our tender meat
and so cried the witcher
He can't be bleat
But I don't really understand the meaning here.
I've always understood bleat to be the sound sheep or lambs make
, or to talkabout something incessantly.
The only thing I could think of was that it the witcher saying he wouldn't make a sound no matter the torture, or something similar, but I'm not sure that makes sense.
While the meaning might be a bit subjective (it is a song lyric after all), are there any other meanings of bleat that I might not be aware of?
Best Answer
When you take the phrase "be bleat" on its own, it is meaningless in English. As you noted, "bleat" means a cry of pain or displeasure, typically made by a sheep, and of course no one can literally be that cry of pain. But as with many song lyrics, that doesn't mean it's actually meaningless.
Essentially it's a shortening (or "contraction") of "he can't be forced/made to bleat" ... or in other words "this guy is so tough nothing ever will make him cry out in pain" ... unlike a sheep (which is a commmon symbol of weakness) ... or a bard for that matter ;)
This references the scene in the show where the character was being beaten up, but never asks for mercy (for himself; he tries to save the bard, and so the bard writes the song in appreciation).
But as you noted, it's a very odd contraction, and was presumably made as wordplay on another common phrase: "he can't be beat." The un-contracted form ("he can't be made to bleat") doesn't sound nearly as close to "he can't be beat", thus the contraction.
This somewhat silly wordplay fits the theme of the rest of the song, which is not only silly, but downright anachronistic at times (eg. "he thrust every elf, back up on the shelf" makes reference to the modern "Elf on a Shelf" toy ... which presumably doesn't actually exist in the world of Witcher).