Runrig : Once in a Lifetime

Folk Rock / United-Kingdom
(1988 - Ridge Records)
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Lyrics


+ Dance Called America
The landlords came, the peasant trials
To sacrifice of men
Through the past and that quite darkly
The presence once again
In the name of capital, establishment
Improvers, it's a name
The hidden truths, the hidden lies
That once nailed you to the pain

[They did a dance called America
They danced it round
And waited at the turns
For America
They danced their ladies round]

To the candles of enlightenment
Once lit they say don't burn
To turn the darkest room of suffering
To a greater state of pain
Don't tell me that's behind you now, don't greet me
Don't meet your dying blind
It's our very last stand together
So let's sever, no regrets

[Refrain]

There were days that once held confidence
Strength of will and mind
The camouflage that washed your fathers
Your sons and daughters time
Another tongue, my love, my island
You've gone international
With all the praying men of God
Who stood and watched it all go on

[Refrain]

+ Protect And Survive
The red hot sun burns up the hill
The winter's bride, the summer's king
I tramp these acres and I feel
Once upon a time
And then it seemed that everything
You saw and touched and felt was real
You turned the tap and you turned the wheel
Breathing free

[Once in a lifetime
You live and love
Once in a lifetime
You die
Once in a moment
The sun goes down
Protect and survive]

Now you search the open evening skies
Trace the memory in your eyes
For the prophet's hard rain and the deluge
Lie in tears around your door
Once there were trees and livestock here
A mother's love, the warnings clear
But you chose to turn away from fear
Breathing free

[Refrain]

Now there's a faceless cross on a distant hill
A wasted voice, a silent scream
Where the lovers love and the dreamers dream
You stand and dream alone
You took your sacrifice to the gods of war
Traded your children's lives for a mess of gold
And you beat your ploughshares into swords
Breathing free

[Refrain]

+ Chi mi'n Geamhradh (I See Winter)
Chi mi'n geamhradh anns a' ghaoith
Chan eil an sneachd' fada bhuainn
Sgothan dorch' 's na craobhan rùisgt
Tha an oidhche nochd fuar

Shaoilinn fhèin gur ann an dè
Bha teas an t-samhraidh 'gar leaghadh
Fad an fheasgair air an dùn
'S tu laighe leisg ri mo thaobh

Chan fhan a' ghrian fad na bliadhna
Cha sheas an uair mar a tha i
Dh' fhalbh thusa gu'n a' cheò

'S dh'fhag thu mi le mo geamhradh

'S iomadh oidhch' a rinn sinn suiridhe
'S iomadh oidhch' a rinn sinn gàir
'S iomadh oidhch' a bhithinn a' smuaintinn
Gum bitheadh tu comhla ruim gu bràth

traduction

I see winter in the wind
The snows are not far off
The clouds are darkening and the trees bare
Tonight it is cold

You would have thought that it was only yesterday
We melted in the heat of the summer
All evening out on the dun
And you lying relaxed by my side

The sun will not stay all year
Time will not stand still
You went away back to the city
And left me to my winter

Many nights we courted
Many nights we laughed
Many nights I thought
That we would be together forever

+ Rocket to the Moon
Here hangs an open landscape
A wild and huge frontier
From a harsh and a barren wasteland
Through the grave to the promised field

You came, you trapped, you charted
You laid the railroads and the schemes
And you tamed this land by enterprise
And by the power of your dreams

[But you made this Clan great
And you made this nation bloom
And you rose with your people through the new world
Like a rocket to the moon]

From the olden coasts of Ireland
From the Hebridean shores
With the forgotten chosen ones
Running from Europe in droves

[Refrain]

There's a town in Manitoba
They say the windows touch the sky
But across the brine the shipyards close
Cos' in this garden flowers die

Still the homelands divide us
Like your blood red brothers of the plains
But where they grieve a candle still burns
A prayer from a flicker to a flame

[Refrain]

+ Going Home
In the distance, day was dawning
Comes to me the early morning
Something tells me that I'm going home

The brand new sun was shining bright
From the darkness, fields of light
Something tells me that I'm going home

Soft the rain gently falling
Lightly across the city morning
Something tells me I'm going home

Across the moorlands past the mountain
O'er the rivers, beside the new stream
Something tells me that I'm going home

As the train is rolling nearer
With the feeling just to be there
Something tells me that I'm going home

Now the skyline's reached my eyes
The ridge stands out in Highland skies
I just can't believe I'm going home

Going home
Where the summer's coming in
And the moonlight on the river
Shows me where I've been

+ Cnoc na Feille (The Hill at the Market Stance)
Gun dragh gun d' chuir e an t-eagal oirnn
Solus Cnoc na Feille
(Hoginn oro horo illean horo eile)

Bha feadhainn ann a chunnaic e
'S cach ag inns' nam breugan
(Hoginn oro horo illean horo eile)

Ach muinntir an dà shealladh
Chitheadh iadsan co-dhiubh e
(Hoginn oro horo illean horo eile)

Hoginn o, hoginn o, horo horo illean
Hoginn o, horo illean, hoginn o horinn o

Tha lach is geadh is curracag
'Nan caraidean air a' mhachaire
(Hoginn oro horo illean horo eile)

Tha feannag air a crochadh suas
Ceangailt le ròpa
(Hoginn oro horo illean horo eile)

Tha coineanach 'sa ghainmheach
Na sheasamh, abair urchaire
(Hoginn oro horo illean horo eile)

Hoginn o, hoginn o, horo horo illean
Hoginn o, horo illean, hoginn o horinn o

traduction

It is without doubt that it frightened us
The light at the market stance
(Hoginn oro horo boys horo eile)

There were those that could see it
Others liked to believe they could

Those with the second sight
They had no difficulty

The duck, the greylag and the lapwing
Together sharing the machairlands

A dead crow hangs on the fence
Tied with a length of rope

A rabbit is sitting on the sand dunes
Presenting himself a perfect target

Hoggin o, hoggin o, horo horo boys
Hoggin o, horo boys, hoginn o horinn o

+ 'S tu mo Leannan/Nightfall on Marsco
Nightfall on Marsco
Cuchuillin in sheets
This world of Maclean's words
Around us like spirits released
I came to love you
I came to drink
Though dancing in darkness
I'm cup running over and drunk

Darkest of prisons
Oldest of nights
For the dawning round Garsbheinn
In patience we wait for the light
I am a climber
I am a thief
O, kingdom of gabbro
Your strong chains won't hold this love

'S tu mo leannan, leannan o
'S tu mo leannan, leannan o
'S tu mo leannan, 's tu mo leannan
'S tu mo leannan, leannan o

traduction

You are my love, love o
You are my love, love o
You are my love, you are my love
You are my love, love o

+ Skye
How can't you see
The wilderness growing free
Time wounded and scarred
Stroking away the years

It's hard to believe
But memories are old ghosts
Mountains of black and gold
Sunsets falling over the moor

[Oh take me there
's na horo eile, horo bho
's na horo bho, hillean o
's na horo eille ho
Take me there]

You take your dream
You make life what you feel
Appearances lead to deceive
This drama so far from me

Destiny
On facts aching wings
Wild geese fly low over your shores
Hearts sailing over the trees

[Refrain]

Chi mi an t-eilean uaine
Tir nam beanntan arda
Ceò a' tuiteam tron a' ghleann
'Na shineadh air do raointean

[Refrain]

traduction

I see the green island
Land of the high hills
Mists falling through your valleys
And lying down on your fields

+ Loch Lomond
By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes
Where the sun shines on Loch Lomond
Where me and my true love spent many happy days
On the banks of Loch Lomond

Twas there that we parted in yon shady glen
On the steep sides of Ben Lomond
Where in purple hue the Highland hills we view
And the moon glints out in the gloaming

[You'll take the high road and I'll take the low road
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye
Where me and my true love will never meet again
On the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond]

Where wild flowers spring and the wee birdies sing
On the steep sides of Ben Lomond
But the broken heart it kens nae second spring
Though resigned we may be while we're greeting

[Refrain]

+ Hearts Of Olden Glory
There's thunder clouds 'round the hometown bay
As I walk out in the rain
Through the sepia showers
And the photoflood days

I caught a fleeting glimpse of life
And though the water's black as night
The colours of Scotland
Leave you young inside

[There must be a place
Under the sun
Where hearts of olden glory
Grow young]

There's a vision coming soon
Through the faith that cleans your wound
Hearts of olden glory
Will be renewed

Down the lens where the headlands stand
I feel a healing through this land
A cross for a people
Like wind through your hands

[Refrain]



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