Lyrics and title copied from Mary Humphreys and Anahata's web site and checked against the sound file at sound file at the Mary Humphreys & Anahata' MySpace page (where it is called WHEN FISHES FLY).


NO MY LOVE, NOT I (WHEN FISHES FLY)

CHORUS: When fishes fly and swallows die, young men will prove true.
There's a herb in my father's garden and some do call it rue.

1. As I walked out one morning, it was in the month of May.
There I spied a fair young maid a-gathering of sweet may.
I asked of her to bed with me—I'd marry her by and by—
But the answer she gave to me was, "Oh, no, my love, not I."

2. So we walked and we talked together till at length we did agree
To sit down on a mossy bank beneath a shady tree.
The blackbird and the sweet song thrush flew in and out the bush,
And the song they sang in chorus was "Oh, no, my love, not I."

3. Now twenty weeks being over, she grew thick around the waist.
This poor girl she grew pale and wan. Her stays they wouldn't lace.
Her gown it wouldn't pin nor her apron strings won't tie,
And she rued the day she said to him, "No, my love, not I."

4. So she wrote a letter to her true love to come immediately.
The answer that he sent her was "No, my love, not I.
Supposing I should come to you, on me they'd put the blame.
My parents would be angry and my friends would me disdain.

5. "And all the very best thing I can advise you for to do
Is to take your baby on your back. Begging you should go,
And when that you grow weary, you can sit you down and cry,
And think on the day you said to me, "Oh no, my love, not I."

[Performed by Mary Humphreys & Anahata on their album "Sharp Practice," Wild Goose CD 312, 2003.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75cybgWkvOU