She Moved Through The Fair

[poliphilo]

She Moved Through The Fair

My young love said to me my mother won't mind
And my father won't slight you for your lack of kind
And she laid her hand on me and this she did say
It will not be long now 'til our wedding Day

And she went away from me, she moved through the fair
And fondly I watched her move here and move there
And then she went onward, just one star awake
Like the swan in the evening moves over the lake

The people were saying no two e'er were wed
But one had a sorrow that never was said
And I smiled as she passed with her goods and her gear
And that was the last that I saw of my dear

Last night she came to me, my dead love came in
So softly she came her feet made no din
And she laid her hand on me and this she did say
It will not be long now 'til our wedding day

                                                       Anon + Padraic Colum

The song was collected in Donegal by Padraic Colum and Herbert Hughes and first published in 1909. The lyrics- all except the last verse- are Colum's work. 

I understand some people choose to have this played at their weddings. They must be mad. 

Comments

Twill be stuck in my head the rest of the day....

[musewithamagnum.livejournal.com]

I've been a bit fascinated by this song and what's become on almost archetypal image - the (usually doomed) loved one moving through the marketplace while the lover watches from afar...it's become an almost obligatory scene in any Scottish/Irish pseudo-historical drama. I've always wondered if there was some sort of connection with this song.

Re: Twill be stuck in my head the rest of the day....

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think the song is almost certainly the origin of the scenario.

Sinead O'Connor sang a version of it (with genders reversed) over the lovers' last meeting in the Michael Collins biopic.

Re: Twill be stuck in my head the rest of the day....

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

I liked her version of "I Am Stretched on Your Grave", even more than the rendition Dead can Dance did.

Re: Twill be stuck in my head the rest of the day....

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't know that. I shall have to go look for it.