'My daughter, why is there a wreath in your hair,
You're clad in your best dress, of silk pure and fair?'
'It's my own true love put the wreath on my head,
For him I am wearing the best that I have.'

*
'My daughter, you're clad in your travelling clothes,
You're wearing your cape and you're saddling a horse!'
'It's my own true love he goes to sea today,
I'm off to the harbour to see him away.'

*
'My daughter, there is a black shawl on your head,
You're wearing a black dress, as if someone were dead!'
'The ship where my true love sailed, it sunk in the sea,
And how he will never come back home to me.'

*
'My friend, in the church my true love I beheld,
She's wearing a white dress and a veil on her head!'
'She thought you were perished in faraway lands,
And now there's a lord whom she's given her hand.'

*
'My lady, I gave you a rich silk attire,
Why is it all torn and covered with mire?
'It's my own true love, he came back for good,
We wandered together and kissed in the wood.'

*
'Oh why is my love lying still in her bed,
Her veil o'er her face, her dress stained with red?'
'From her wedded husband she wanted to part,
And he took a knife and stabbed in her heart.'

*
'Oh mother, I've seen him as saved from the wreck,
He's wearing a clean shirt and a noose round his neck!'
'Today he has seen the last dawn of his life,
For he murdered the lord who had murdered his wife.'

*

© 2001

Home

The Works

Song List

Next