The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #93070   Message #1786194
Posted By: Joe Offer
18-Jul-06 - 04:52 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Underneath Our Cottage Window (Czech)
Subject: ADD: Underneath Our Cottage Window
Hi, Maire - on your Website, you said you had found a Bohemian song, "Underneath Our Cottage Window." That was the lead I needed. It's in a little songbook from World Around Songs of North Carolina - title of the books is Happy Meeting: Folk Songs from Czechoslovakia. The title of the song is "Underneath our cottage window," or "Pod tim
nasim okeneckem."

Underneath Our Cottage Window
(Pod tím naším okénečkem)

Underneath our cottage window
Frost is on the ground,
And the water in the fountain
Now is icy bound.
With a hatchet I'll go over
And cut through the glistening cover,
Then the water, free from bondage,
Will be once more found.

Underneath our cottage window
Snow-white roses grow,
"Tell me, dear one, midst this beauty
What can cause your woe?"
"I need something more than flowers,
In this dreary world of ours,
For my heart is sad and lonely,
And my hot tears flow."

Underneath our cottage window
Grows a lily tall,
"Tell me, fair one, do the young men
Often come to call?"
"No one ever thinks of calling,
No one ever thinks of calling,
Everybody shuns a maiden
With a dowry small.

original source: Twenty-Two Bohemian Folk Songs




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