U2
One

One

(We are one but not the same)

We want to analyze the lyrics of one of the greatest love songs ever written, a song that highlights, in very simple words, that love between two people (spouses, lovers, friends) cannot be just a feeling, but rather an act of will. Because only with will can you overcome difficult moments, those times when feelings waver.
The lyrics are very harsh, never reaching the cynicism of many other songs from “Achtung Baby”. The scene is of a couple in the act of reconciling. One of the two people, let's imagine for simplicity a “she,” begins this long reproach against her partner who abandoned her during a moment of difficulty.
It starts gently:

“Is it getting better
Or do you feel the same”

After the storm, calm has returned. She begins by asking her partner how he feels, taking the first step to break the ice: “Is it getting better or do you feel the same?”

But soon after, the lesson begins:
 

“Will it make it easier for you
Now you got someone to blame”.

Here the author seems to say that now that he will start blaming her: “Will it make it easier for you now that you have someone to blame?” And, as is well known, the accuser is almost always the guilty party.

She continues:

"You say
One love
One life
When it's one need in the night”.

“You say we are one love and one life when one feels the desire of the other in the night” (literally: “when there is one need in the night”).  

The phrase is on the brink of cynicism: during moments of inner (or physical) communion, you say we are one. But love is something that cannot be limited to physical union or happy moments as the following verses recite:

“One love
We get to share it
Leaves you baby if you don't care for it”.

“Love is sharing” (of both good and bad moments), because love is like a flower: either you care for it or it dies: “It leaves you if you don't care for it”.

Now the reproach hits the core:

“Did I disappoint you?
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth?
You act like you never had love
And you want me to go without”.

“Did I disappoint you? Or did I leave a bad taste in your mouth? You act like you've never had love [from me]. And you want me to go without”. “You want me to go without: “And since you think I never gave you love, then I don't deserve to receive it from you”.

Then she doesn't want to escalate and softens the blow: “Anyway, it's too late tonight to dredge the past out into the light”. It's pointless to complain and bring up all past misunderstandings, because this would be like throwing fuel on the fire:

“Well it's too late
Tonight
To drag the past out
Into the light”.

Then the very definition of love:

“We're one
But we're not the same
We get to carry each other
Carry each other
One”

Even though two people who love each other become one, the differences will always remain and you must ensure that they do not take over: “We are one but not the same. We need to carry each other”.

Now the reproach continues and becomes even harsher:

“Have you come here for forgiveness
Have you come to raise the dead
Have you come here to play Jesus
To the lepers in your head”.

“Have you come here for forgiveness? Have you come to raise the [our love] dead?”

Then the clear reference to Jesus. For Irish Catholics, marriage is sacred; for them, it is truly Christ who unites two people in a bond of love. So she asks him if he's “come to play Jesus”, a polite way of saying: have you really repented for what you've done or are you just pretending?

The outburst grows even more when she accuses him of the main threat to any union, selfishness:

“Did I ask too much?
More than a lot
You gave me nothing
Now it's all I got”.

“Did I ask too much? But you gave me nothing and your nothing is all I've got”.

Then another bitter phrase:

“We're one
But we're not the same
We hurt each other
Then we do it again”.

“We are one but not the same. We hurt each other and then we do it again”.

Then a reference to the Gospel, often present in Bono's lyrics:

“You say
Love is a temple
Love the higher law”

“You say love is a temple, and you say love is the higher law”.

But, even here, alongside these noble words, stands the harsh reality:

“You ask me to enter
But then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt”

“You ask me to enter [into this temple that is love] but then you make me crawl. And I can't keep holding on [for your change], because all you know how to do is hurt [those around you]”.

Then the final exhortation:

“One love
One blood
One life                                                                                              

You got to do what you should.
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers”.

“One love, one blood, one life. You’ve got to do what you know you should do” and that is: “[learn to] live in communion with me and not just with me, but with everyone else, sisters and brothers”:

There are other musical masterpieces by U2, but none of their songs has managed to touch the hearts of people so profoundly, perhaps because none has ever been written with such great participation and sincerity by Bono. The end of the marriage between Edge and his wife Aislinn was undoubtedly the inspiring reason for this simple and deep reflection by the singer, who suffered greatly from his friend's divorce; but in reality, Bono said he wrote the lyrics in Berlin thinking especially about the band, about the moment of division he and his three companions were experiencing, which was about to lead to the band’s breakup. A way to spur them to become one again. “A bittersweet song about our unity” (cf. “From the Sky Down”).

But the meaning of the song is even more universal. Man cannot live alone; he is born to live in communion with others, without thereby losing his uniqueness, which, as the song itself says, is indelible. A man without social relationships is a dead man, or rather a person who slowly dies inside. A banal maxim, but one that some of us often forget.