Meaning of “To Someone From A Warm Climate (Uiscefhuarithe)” by Hozier
“To Someone From A Warm Climate (Uiscefhuarithe)” can be deemed heavily poetic, as is Hozier’s norm, but at the same time, it may also be counted as one of his more-straightforward outings. That is to say that it is quite discernible that what’s ultimately being relayed is romantic in nature.
And as explained by the singer, this song was literally “written for someone from a warm climate” whom he “was involved with”. In other words, said individual did not know how it feels to live in chilly places, such as Hozier’s homeland of Ireland. By the looks of things Ireland doesn’t tend to get terribly cold during the winter, but being up in Europe and all, it does have its moments.
So what the vocalist apparently proceeds to do in the first verse is describe to the addressee how it feels to sleep in a cold bed, i.e. one that needs the presence of a human body human body to make it comfortable, i.e. warm the bed up.
The second verse isn’t as easy to make comprehensive sense of, and so it can also be said with the chorus. It is also in the chorus where we find the subtitle of the song, “uiscefhuarithe”, which is a native term from Hozier’s homeland.
As explained it would actually be an adjective, which meant to point to an object that has been cooled by water. But again, within the context of the chorus it isn’t exactly clear how or why the singer is using that term.
It’s the pre-chorus rather which drives the notion home that “To Someone from a Warm Climate” is akin to a love song. For instance, it is in this passage that Hozier refers to the addressee as “darling”. And he also mentions “another leg around you in the bed frame”, an expression that not only conjures up images of two people being in bed together, but also their bodies being intertwined.
The bridge, in which the vocalist refers to “the cold lake water of (his) heart”, apparently has something to do with Hozier’s poetic usage of “uiscefhuarithe”.
But it is not clear if Hozier said passage is meant to serve the purpose of the vocalist celebrating falling in love or lamenting the notion that his heart is too cold to do so. However, all lyrics considered, i.e. taking into account the outro that follows, it is seemingly the former, i.e. all of this, shall we say indirect lyricism ultimately being meant to point to the idea of the singer having found a special someone.
“‘Uiscefhuaraithe’
The feel of coldness only water brings
There are some things that no one teaches you, love
That come natural as a dream you didn’t know that you were in”
The aforenoted “lake water of my heart” is a phrase that was apparently derived from Dante’s Inferno, i.e. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). Said religious-based text, which dates back to the 14th century, influenced the composition of “Unreal Unearth”, Hozier’s album from which “To Someone from a Warm Climate” is derived from.
Columbia Records and Rubyworks Records released this song on 18 August 2023, with its first teasing having reportedly come a couple of weeks prior.
Hozier wrote and produced this track with Jeff “Gitty” Gitelman.
