“As a child, it was the place names

Singin’ at me as the first thing

How the mouth must be employed in every corner of itself

To say ‘Appalacicola’ or ‘Hushpukena,’ like ‘Gweebarra’

A promise softly sung of somewhere else”

This verse talks about how when you are young you start to recognize names or words as foreign. This is for a reason: It is because they are words stolen from other places or cultures as the years pass and colonization takes pieces of a culture and moves them elsewhere. Hozier points this out with language that has been stolen from Indians, Native Americans, and the Irish. As he sings those last lines, they give a small promise of the persistence of a person’s home country or culture.

“And as a young man, blessed to pass so many road signs

And have my foreign ear made fresh again on each unlikely sound

But feel at home, hearin’ a music that few still understand

A butchered tongue still singin’ here above the ground”

This verse is about the disappearance of some native languages. As an artist who travels a lot, Hozier isn’t nearly as exposed to the Irish language as he would be in his hometown. This idea of travel and living abroad separating a person from their culture is something he explores in the first two lines.

The second half of the verse then talks about how, even when being in Ireland, he struggles to truly connect with his culture because it has become fractured over time. By saying ‘butchered tongue,’ Hozier talks about how, through the years, the Celtic language has become rare despite it being the native language of Ireland. The last line refers to the many languages that are still spoken ‘above the ground,’ not quite a dead language but teetering on the edge of it.

“The ears were chopped from young men if the pitch cap didn’t kill them

They are buried without scalp in the shattered bedrock of our home

You may never know your fortune

Until the distance has been shown between what is lost forever

And what can still be known”

This verse discusses the darker history that lies behind many cultures and how all that history lies beneath grounds that have been scarred by historical events. Then he brings up how history has influenced the society that we live in now. You can look back and see how much humanity has progressed, but there are still things that are missing from the history books that altered the world as we know it.

“So far from home to have a stranger call you, ‘Darling’

And have your guarded heart be lifted like a child up by the hand

In some town that just means ‘home’ to them

With no translator left to sound

A butchered tongue still singin’ hear above the ground”

As opposed to the second verse, the last line no longer has that negative connotation, but instead has become more hopeful. This verse discusses the ways culture, and not just the Irish culture, can be found in random places outside its origin. Although some parts of a culture may be dead or dying, there are other parts of it that are alive in new and exciting ways around the world.

General Information

Aside from being a beautiful song both vocally and instrumentally, “Butchered Tongue” also has lyrics that can connect with people around the world on an emotional level. Hozier discusses the effects colonization has on cultures and how moving to a new country can change your relationship with your home country. 

Diversity can be both positive and negative. Having too many cultures present can certainly lead to their blending and muddling together, erasing the original cultures that contributed to them in the first place. On the other hand, diversity can be positive because it allows your culture to be shared through different forms of media and in new spaces. The message of this song is so beautiful it’s hard not to give it praise.

Disclaimer: This is the author’s personal interpretation. Lyrics credit: Hozier.