Roots Archives Forum

Hi and greetings to all,

I always was reached very deeply by this great song. And the lyrics are so high. Lots of passages although are sung in gueze, the ethiopian religious and antic langage. Unfortunatly those lyrics remain very obscure. The only one I found on the net are simply transcribing it phonetically, with no meaning (see below). In addition to that it is clear that jamaicans from the 70' used the gueze and amharic langages with approximation cause probably refering to fragments brought back by the elders that visited the holly place.
I already can correct one or two things : Itsio in fact is Ighzeo, which like Ighziaber means God; Salam is probably Selah wich means in the name of, or simplu selam which like in arabic and hebrew means peace; and "Wee mem fiss gidous" is in fact "Menfes Kidus" wich means holly spirit.
Is there any correction/translation in gueze (or english if needed) some of you could add to these few ones? It would be a great contribution to a better understanding of this magistral tune.
Thanks brothers and sisters
One Love

"
Ahahah….
Itsio lessilat itzio dessalameh,
Salam dekooleekeemo izla manefe sla
We must be born again to reveal the body as a true church.
Oh I know a place of worship
Where angels keep in fresh – knowing their true Saint – spiritual vine,
Tribes are calling it sublime !
I know my body is a church,
The first gift of life !

Bless me everyone !
Wee mem fiss gidous
Heldoo amlat
Itsio lessilat itzio dessalameh,
Salam dekooleekeemo izla manefe sla

Let us all giving to the hands of Jah,
Be truthful to youself and come
Deflationed’s like ( ???)
Many are called but few are chosen.
Where there’s a will there’s a way.
Remember all the love given to us
Oh Lord !
Soulvision is a mass !
Cause in my temple I put all my trust !

Bless me everyone !
Wee mem fiss gidous
Heldoo amlat
Itsio lessilat itzio dessalameh,
Salam dekooleekeemo izla manefe sla

I was glad when the Saint let us enter to house of dread.
Humbled within yourself and come
In sweet harmony
From the century
Side by side
Praisings of all tribe.
Oh Lord
So it was in the beginning
Continually world without end !

Bless me everyone !
Wee mem fiss gidous
Heldoo amlat
Itsio lessilat itzio dessalameh,
Salam dekooleekeemo izla manefe sla

thanks for lyrics benjamin. love this tune too. i always thought in verse three he sang 'salvation is a must'(soulvision is a must). and the last verse, 'great saints of all tribes'(praising of all tribe). must listen good to this tune later. some of his words are sometimes hard to understand. but thanks again for lyrics.

ital kemar

also
deflationed like???
i think its...
the fortunate and lost alike

well ital kemar, indeed, these lyrics are approximative, specially the gueze passages, so after your new listening come back and improve it. I agree with your points on salvation and praising. the other things you underline are indeed strange, I don't know who put these lyrics on the net but it was probably only according to his ears...
any ideas for the gueze lyrics ?
bless

:)sorry benjamin, my gueze isnt the best. to be honest, i always wondered what language those lyrics were sung in. must have a read up on it. so thanks all the same for writing them up.

ital kemar

How do you know the song is in Geez and not Amharic? Did you read this somewhere or are you just guessing? Problem about Amharic as used by most Reggae singers is that they used a dictionary and translated word by word from English.
I am not familiar with this Ijahman song. If you want you can send me a download link by pm and I can forward it to a sistren who is pretty good in Amharic.

Igzer yimasgan

P.S.: Here is a download link for a calendar with which you can learn a bit of Amharic (at least the alphabet, names of days, months etc.): http://www.rastafari-works.org/calendar2009_en.pdf

hi adilisha,

Unless Ijahman mixed amharic and gueze I assume it is in gueze because the words i reognized from him are from the gueze like menfes kidus (holly spirit) or ighzeo (god, wich is mostly said ighziaber in amharic).
And I also think this because gueze is the orthodox church's langage, just like latin was in the catholic church. I suppose Ijahman took his references from some orthodox texts.
But you can be right, gueze is the ancester of amharic, then it's possible some words are similar. Maybe ijahman also used a simple dictionnary of amharic...
anyway, you gave me a good idea, i'll simply send the song to some of my friends in Ethiopia to get their opinion. You absolutly need to listen to this song and to the whole incredible album. I'll try to send it to you in time to come, but you can (and should) get it easily, it's on Island label.

Bless

Ises!

Which Ijahman album are you talking about? Is the title of the topic here the title of the song? This would suggest of course that it is Ge'ez.

You are right. Ge'ez and Amharic are closely related. Myself I don't know Ge'ez, but a bit of Amharic. Mänfäs qidus (or as you write: menfes kidus) means holy spirit in Amharic, too and "ighzeo" might be another transliteration of igzer, which is an alternative form to igzebeher in Amharic meaning GOD. Difficult to talk about these languages without using the Ethiopic alphabet.

Let me know if you find out more from your friends in Ethiopia ...

ONE JAH LOVE

hi adilisha. this album.
[cover=2282,2637]

ital kemar

Ites Idrin!

Just digged out my dicttionary german - amharic - english written by Dawit Berhanu.

The thing is I can´t use it cause I can´t read amharic letters.

Do you know if there´s a dictionary all written in latin letters so I can read it?

I dug out the album and after listening to it again after ages I realised for the first time which tune you are actually talking about. I know it of course and it is very beautiful. Difficult to hear the lyrics though. I would have had difficulties with some of the English parts already. So thanks for the lyrics that are there.

@ I-Lion Tafari
You should make the effort to try and learn the alphabet. Otherwise you will regret. There is no way to properly transcribe Amharic with latin letters. Best is to have both, the Ethiopic letters and some transliteration to facilitate pronunciation. Like it is done in this dictionary by Wolf Leslau: http://www.amazon.de/Concise-Amharic-Di ... 0520205014
But mind you, the Amharic words still appear in correspondence to the order of letters in the Amharic alphabet.
The following is a good course book, which also explains the alphabet in the beginning. There are some general rules regarding the alphabet so in fact you don't have to learn all letters individually.
http://www.amazon.de/Colloquial-Amharic ... 415100038/