Found in a fortune cookie

I had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. My fortune said:

I spent the time prepare the song,
while the song is not being sung.

A quick Google search shows that this cryptic fortune has been confusing internauts since 2007.

Comments

[Fallen Knight]

If i had to BS you i would say it means that to "sing" you have to prepare something to sing? :

[Hoopy McGee]

I think we're missing a "to" in there.

"I spent the time to prepare the song while the song is not being sung" = "I made my plans before I started building/writing whatever it is I'm working on."

My first impression, at least.

[shutaro]

It means the "Stick with your wife" barrel was empty too.

[Charcoal Quill]

To quote Maxwell Smart:
"That's how they transmit. Who checks on the international flow of fortune cookies? I'm sure this is a KAOS front."
You didn't happen to have lunch at the Fortune Cookie Club, did you...?

[alexnine]

Maybe it was a "I was planning instead of doing and nothing was getting done" sort of saying?

[Westphalian_Musketeer]

blogcdn.com/massively.joystiq.com/media/2011/10/wut.jpg

Sometimes it is the only appropriate response.

[AerialReptoid]

"think before you act"

or

"practice before doing whatever your doing"

[Mad Remedy]

As a musician who has spent years perfecting songs that I have no intention of performing, for both the challenge of learning a new piece and the satisfaction of improving my repertoire, I interpret it as something like: "Just because you don't have to, doesn't mean you shouldn't."

[GhostOfHeraclitus]

All you need is some extra punctuation:

I spent the time, prepare the song,
while the song is not being sung.

Obviously, it means that Shub-Cookie, the demon baker with a thousand ovens, has spent his time in the Material, the long aeons that were foretold are up, and he commands his disciples, like he who was of old named Equus Malus, to prepare their songs. The songs, of course, are scarcely human shrieks of mad ecstasy to better greet the immanentization of Shub-Cookie as well, of course, as the eschaton. And the Song Not Being Sung, or as the Dee translation of the Mad Arab's book puts it Song Without Sound, is the Song That Ends The Earth that Shub-Cookie will sing atop Tibet, a mad eldritch keening that shall last seven days and will culminate in the arrival of Those Who Come After. The mad Russian pianist, the incomparable Scriabin, tried to capture this melody and turn it to his own ends, but his erstwhile allies in the Ordo Templi Orientis had him removed before he could finish more the the prefatory act of the Mysterium. The "infected" wound was ever their favored trick, a little something Crowley picked up in Egypt, just ask Lord Carnarvon.

I mean, wasn't it obvious?

[Lordmiak]

Sing her song and become nothing !

[Arcshod]

474210

Eeyup, I'm thinking you cracked the code right open there.

[Church]

It means it's time to fire the folks at the fortune cookie factory.

[Blue_Paladin42]

In bed.

[CelestialBrony]

It means that the scant few people who have the world figured out don't say what's on their mind, because everyone who is right gets treated like garbage.

[horizon]

474165
Fact #1: Luna is Celestia's only known canon sister.
Fact #2: Blueblood is Celestia's nephew.
Fact #3: Nightmare Moon was a black horned pony only ever encountered in the Everfree Forest.
Fact #4: Nightmare Moon is shown repeatedly to have transformed into dark mist.

Now then: Lovecraft made mention of a goddess nicknamed "The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young." In personal letters, he also described her as an "evil cloud-like entity".

Bakers? Ha. Shub-Luna existed long before the Pony and will exist long after the Pony. The All-Mother is our only hope against the elder things far more dark and terrible. Sing her hymns in praise.

[chronicLurker]

I spent the time prepare the song,
while the song is not being sung.

Maybe this (adjusted for pseudo-profundity):

While I spent time preparing to sing,
the song remained unsung.