What does it mean "mortal coil"?

Question

In this song:
Breath after breath we carry this mortal coil safe for tomorrow (Duran Duran)
I ask this because I speak spanish and I don´t exactly understand the meaning.
Thank you.

I think it has some relation with the thread of life that is cutted by Atropos (one of the Fates) when someone has to die (mitology).
Am I so wrong?

Answer 1

It is a poetic expression meaning "life".

We also have a humourous expression "to shuffle off this mortal coil" which is one way of saying "estirarse la pata" (=to die)

Answer 2

Shuffle Off This Mortal Coil

Answer 3

It's a quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet, where there is a reference to shuffling off this mortal coil, meaning separating soul from body, i.e. dying. Our mortal coil is our body.

Answer 4

"Mortal coil" is a simile for Life.

"Mortal coil is a poetic term that means the troubles of daily life and the strife and suffering of the world. It is used in the sense of a burden to be carried or abandoned, most famously in the phrase "shuffle[d] off this mortal coil" from Shakespeare's Hamlet. (For more context of the phrase, see "To be, or not to be".)"

"Mortal coil" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_coil

"To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause."

("Hamlet, Prince of Denmark", Act III, scene I, by W. Shakespeare)

" 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!"

"Dead Parrot Sketch", Monty Phyton

Answer 5

Death is overrated, and eventually we will all experience the event. Untill then, enjoy the life you have, it will most likely be too short when ever it ends, and nobody gets out alive. If there is anything after death, we will know soon enough. It is hard enough to live for the people you love, death will take care of itself so I don't give it much though, I am more concerned with living a good and moral life. Death will eventually occur in any event.

Answer 6

mortal coil

Mortal coil is a poetic term that means the troubles of daily life and the strife and suffering of the world. It is used in the sense of a burden to be carried or abandoned, most famously in the phrase "shuffle[d] off this mortal coil" from Shakespeare's Hamlet. (For more context of the phrase, see To be, or not to be.)

Derivation

Derived from 16th Century English, "coil" refers to tumults or troubles. Used idiomatically, the word means "the troubles of life and the world."

"Coil" has an unusual etymological history. It was coined repeatedly; at one time people used it as a verb to mean "to cull," "to thrash," "to lay in rings or spirals," "to turn," "to mound hay" and "to stir." As a noun it has meant "a selection," "a spiral," "the breech of a gun," "a mound of hay", "a pen for hens", and "noisy disturbance, fuss, ado." It is in this last sense, which became popular in the 16th century, that Shakespeare used the word.

In fact, "mortal coil"—along with "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," "to sleep, perchance to dream" and "ay, there’s the rub"—is part of Hamlet’s famous "To be or not to be" speech. "Coil" is no longer used as a synonym for "disturbance."

In today's colloquialisms "coil" has been phased from use. You're unlikely to hear "Stop making such a coil! I’m trying to sleep!" But the phrase "mortal coil," meaning "the bustle of life," will surely remain part of our language as long as English-speakers take pleasure in Shakespeare and archaicism.