Originally composed in Gaelic as "Iosa" by Dolores O'Riordan around 1989, this melody was played two times in Limerick at The Parkway in 1991, and once recorded live in The Cranberries Underworld (1991), London, the city where Dolores O'Riordan gave her last breath; all this according to FanPage "Cranberries World". "Iosa" is Gaelic for "Jesus", and this was the only entirely Gaelic song performed by The Cranberries in which she specifically mentioned Jesus (though Dolores would sing a couple of Christmas carols where would also do that). Anyways, the same year this song was released, the band published their fourth and last EP "Uncertain".
For years, I wanted to play this song, but since I don't know Gaelic at all and the translations weren't clear, I couldn't. However, in 2018, the 25th Anniversary Edition of "Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?" finally publised the song as a studio version: • The Cranberries - Íosa... Cranberriesworld.com released the best English translation, which I needed to adapt to sing in English and make sense. They state that "in an interview published in NME on 16 November 1991, Dolores explained the song is dedicated to her dead grandad". See whole info at:
cranberriesworld.com/music/son...
cranberriesworld.com/2018/10/0...
Thanks to those who made the translation possible. Cranlovers, please forgive me and don't hate me: since the exact English translation wouldn't match the melody, I needed to interpret it and adapt it. The reference to my "grandad" became "dad" and slightly changed other parts making it more personal to me and broader for all. I also had to transpose it 'cause who can match Dolores voice? I still tried to mantain the key ideas as I see them, leaving place for a broad interpretation, still close to the original, I think. Hope you like it. Before I was Christian, The Cranberries were my favorite band and Dolores my favorite singer. I knew every song of every album and I felt so identified 'cause I would feel the pain through her songs, and I loved it, but now I know that "Íosa" saves and He can take my pain away. God bless you all guys!
CHORDS: Original: [Em7 C D], Adapted: [Bm7 G A ]
LYRICS:
Sitting snugly in the working hours, you're thinking back, about your old days,
your troubled years are gone oh daddy, they all have gone, they're gone, oh daddy
I haven't known what you went through, you lived together with wife and children
and all of these years that life passed through, you count the years now, count the years now
Oh Jesus, what's left to tell you?, oh Jesus, but come your kingdom
Oh Jesus, what's left to tell you?, oh Jesus, but say that now your kingdom come
Sitting comfty in the shining hours, just look at me, what have I told you?
troubled years are gone oh daddy, they all have gone, they're gone, oh daddy
I haven't known what mom went through, we've been together, wife and children
and all of these years that life passed through, you count the years now, count the years now
Oh Jesus, what's left to tell you?, oh Jesus, but come your kingdom
Oh Jesus, what's left to tell you?, oh Jesus, but say that now your kingdom come,
I pray that now your kingdom come
18 май 2020