No, it’s not about the video game. “Fortnight,” the first single from Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department,” is a duet with Post Malone.

Before we delve into the lyrics, let’s get some temporal vocabulary: “Fortnight” means a two-week span. How much damage can two weeks do? According to this song, a lot. 

Swift opened up more about the meaning behind the dark lead single in her Amazon Music commentary about her new album. The pop icon breaks down the inspiration and significance of other tracks, like “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” and “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys,” too.

“‘Fortnight’ is a song that exhibits a lot of the common themes that run throughout this album. One of which being fatalism — longing, pining away, lost dreams,” she explained in the Amazon Music voice note to her fans.

She added, “I think that it’s a very fatalistic album in that there are lots of very dramatic lines about life or death. ‘I love you, it’s ruining my life.’ These are very hyperbolic, dramatic things to say. It’s that kind of album.”

“Hyperbolic” and “dramatic” are two very appropriate adjectives to describe the lyrics in “Fortnight,” which detail a torrid, short-lived and forbidden love affair. As Swift mentioned, she repeatedly sings that the aftermath of the romance left lingering effects: “I love you, it’s ruining my life.” 

This line was already teased in an Apple Music playlist ahead of the album and in imagery, as if to say, “It’s Important.”

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