Björk – Sorrowful Soil Lyrics

Alongside “Ancestress”, “Sorrowful Soil” is also a track dedicated to Björk’s late mother, the environmental activist Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir, who passed away in 2018, soon after the song was written. While “Ancestress” is described as a kind of epitaph for Hildur, “Sorrowful Soil” is described as an eulogy. As Björk told in an interview Elle Magazine:

‘Sorrowful Soil’ was written before my mother died – it was around the time that my brother and I realized that this was the beginning of the last chapter of her life. The song is sad in tone, and it’s typical of what people feel before an ailing parent passes away – that whole beginning of the last part of their life.

[Chorus]
Into sorrowful soil (Sorrowful soil)
Our roots are dug
Into sorrowful soil (Sorrowful soil)
Our roots are dug (Roots are dug)
Into sorrowful soil
Our roots are dug
Into sorrowful soil (Sorrowful soil)
Our roots are dug (Our roots are dug, are dug, our)

[Verse 1]
In a woman’s lifetime
She gets four hundred eggs
But only two or three nests
Woven with a mother’s life force (Woven with a mother’s life force)
Emotional textile (Woven with a mother’s life force, woven with a mother’s life force)
Self-sacrificial (Woven with a mother’s life force)
This is emotional textile
Self-sacrificial, self-sacrificial

[Verse 2]
Nihilism happening cuts through this
Nihilism happening
You did well, you, you did your best
Well, you did your best (You did, you did it well)
You did, did, di-di-di-did well
You did, did, di-di-di-di-di-di well
You di-di-di-di-did well
You did well