It's Not Easy (Lucky Dube)

by Helen
(Switzerland)

This most touching love song is about how wrong choices can cause pain in your life: A man falls in love with a beautiful woman and marries her, without studying her character. Just to get betrayed by her.

I believe the song was written in the 1980's, but Lucky's reggae is timeless. It still speaks to us.

I first heard the song after my own failed relationship. The line "this choice I made didn't work out the way I thought it would" almost ripped my heart in two every time the song played on the radio.

Only somebody who has been through this will understand how much grief is in these words. I wonder what it is that Lucky experienced before he wrote the song.

"It's not easy" is a painful reminder that we need to make good choices in life. But at the same time it gives us hope: We are only human and mistakes are part of life. We can learn from them to make better decisions in the future.

It's Not Easy Lyrics

lord have mercy...

I remember the day I called mama on the telephone
I told her: mama I'm getting married
I could hear her voice on the other side of the telephone
she was smiling and she asked me a question that I proudly answered
she said: son did you take time to know her?
I said: mama she is the best
But today it hurts me so to go back to Mama and say
Mama I'm getting a divorce oh
I'm getting divorced

the choice I made didn't work out the way I thought it would
this choice I made
it hurts me so mama
this choice I made didn't work out the way I thought it would
this choice of mine oh....
mama said to me

chorus (x2)
it's not easy to understand it son
but I hope you'll make it
you'll be happy again

I remember in church when the preacherman read the scriptures
you looked so beautiful, so beautiful and so innocent
I did not know that behind that beauty
lies the true colours that will destroy me in the near future

this choice I made didn't work out to be what I thought it would be
oh mama
this choice I made didn't work out the way I thought it would
now I'm hurting

I remember when I held you by the hand
preacherman read the scriptures putting words in your mouth
maybe what the preacherman said
was not something that was within you
now I know what they mean when they say

beautiful woman
is another man's plaything
oh Lord I'm hurting now

this choice I made didn't work out the way I thought it would
this choice of mine oh

mama said to me
it's not easy to understand it son
but I hope you'll make it
you'll be happy again


Thank you Lucky for this beautiful song! May you rest in peace.