System of a Down: Question! Meaning

Song Released: 2005

Question! Lyrics

Sweet berries ready for two ghosts are no different than you,
Ghosts are now waiting for you,
Are you...
Sweet berries ready for two ghosts are no different than you,
Ghosts are now waiting for you,
Are you dreaming?
Dreaming the night,...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Aug 28th 2006 !⃝

   Nope- in the making of question (which I saw) it's about reincarnation. The color red meaning the reincarnation. The red bird is shot in the beginning, turning into the little girl in the red dress. She meets the boy in the forrest who gives her berries which turn out to be poisonous she dies. Then the woman in the red dress and the man she's with is the boy/girl reincarnated. Then the woman dies during labor, and the reincarnated baby is recieved in a red blanket. Actual words of the band members.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   sniperchick

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   Jul 4th 2006 !⃝

   I may be wrong, as we may all be, but I always saw this song as a question of death, the uncertainty of it all. the whole thing with the "ghosts are no different than u" is connected with the "do we die" part. its like do we die and go away forever or do we become reincarnated as somemthing different (ghosts). and the whole thing with "do we kno when we die" and "do we know when we fly" (go to heaven) is just another part of the uncertainty. "sweet berries ready for two" is like you can die now, u'll have someone with you if you let them, take these sweet berries and feel the relief.

3. 3TOP RATED

   #3 top rated interpretation:
   Darkangel_X

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   Nov 5th 2006 !⃝

   Reincarnation. I was suprised anyone else got them. Funny, people seldom consider the video clips, right?
   
   Well done on linking red with reincarnation.
4. anonymous

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   Nov 28th 2016 !⃝

   I think this song is about Adan, Eve and all the mankind. The berrys are the forbiden fruit in the paradise and the ghost are the gods. We are not diferent than the gods. To eat the berrys is to be like the gods but to eat the berrys is to die and to know the evil too.
5. anonymous

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   Dec 4th 2011 !⃝

   or maybe because it makes your question about who you are with and who they were in a past life o.O
6. anonymous

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   Dec 2nd 2011 !⃝

   I have wondered if it's an allusion to Socrates. I'll grant you I've never seen an interview with the band on the subject but I have my students read from Crito by Plato. In that Socrates boasts (before drinking the hemlock that was his fate) that he can't wait to talk with the gods and past Greek heroes when he dies. His last line is great: "Now I go to die, you go to live. Which of us goes to the better lot is known to no one but the gods." Deep!
7. psuguy

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   Nov 1st 2011 !⃝

   I think this song is about that of the soul of the living. I think this song is much deeper than death. Its talking about the death of a mans soul. Its talking about what happens when we fly. I guess you could say that is death. I think of it as falling in love. We lose ourself and fall victim to the woman. When 'We fly' a part of us dies. There is do doubt about this. We fall pray to woman who can do what she wants of us. Also flying could mean having delusions of grandeur of sort. I guess a certain love falls into this category. question people!!!!!!
8. anonymous

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   Oct 19th 2011 !⃝

   Its System asking a question themselves.....thats how i take it
9. anonymous

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   Apr 15th 2011 !⃝

   Sweet berries make bitter things taste sweet without adding sugar. They are consumed before eating the meal.
   
   Metaphorically; while preparing for death believing in reincarcation might be the sweet berry of death.
10. anonymous

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    Aug 31st 2010 !⃝

    Could be... that Question!, since it has an exclamation point, is pointing out how it's so uncertain what happens "when we fly" yet Christians, Athiests, Muslims etc, can state so certan what happens "when we go"?! How the contrast from what your senses and mind can tell you of what sweet berries would taste like, to how really only ghosts would really know what happens after death, are spoken of as like there were no difference. Wars, countries, boundaries have been formed from these ideals. "Life is but a dream."
11. anonymous

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    Apr 3rd 2010 !⃝

    Well, it could be questioning the concept of reincarnation itself, or more loosely, religion. Maybe I'm just looking a tad bit too far, but it could be the case.
12. mattweb

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    Feb 27th 2010 !⃝

    no that whole reincarnation thing is a bunch of BS. and whoever said that the band said it themselves is lieing again, this song was created because of the speech that william shakespere wrote in Hamlet act 1. it says "to be or not to be that is the question" then he rambles about how it must be after you die. and how do you know if anything happens when you die. hence the song name "question!"
13. anonymous

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    Oct 19th 2009 !⃝

    To me i see the reincarnation concept, and the artists (SOAD) questioning their insecurity in their belief on the topic. They ask "when we go, do we die?" as in, is it over? But the red signifies one soul repeatedly appearing in many ways living similar stories.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
14. anonymous

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    Aug 27th 2008 !⃝

    Well this song is all about the question of DEATH! They are asking us whether we are aware that DEATH is waiting for us somewhere. Do we know when we'll die? Are we prepared for death when it comes to us?
15. jollyroger

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    May 11th 2008 !⃝

    Silly interpetations close some of you.
    but this is how it rolls.
    imagine you are walking through the woods and you see a tree with some juicy looking berries, we of course will take the juciest plumpiest ones. Its our instinct.
    
    as ghosts wander through our dimensions of mind,
    we are as sweet berries to them.
    
    then they ask you the listener the Question!
    do you know where you go when you die?
    system has a pretty good idea..
    ghosts are waiting for you..
    
    further back and deeper in. This song is meant right at those who genicide and murder. (check out the armenian genicide) because those ghosts are waiting for you.
16. arditi

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    Apr 24th 2008 !⃝

    I think what they mean about the berries is that why do we do inflict harm to stuff that have ghosts, which the bird in the beginning resembalies, when sweet berries have no ghost.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
17. anonymous

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    Jan 26th 2008 !⃝

    I believe this song, question, is asking weather or not there is life after death. Weather there is a heaven or a hell. Weather we have a spirit, or we just die, and see nothing but darkness.
18. anonymous

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    Feb 5th 2007 !⃝

    i don't no but I think this song has to deal with birth life death and new birth sort of circle of life sort of thing... I don't no I have no idea whats going on.... wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.... Seriously though kick ass song... rightcheous

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