The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #8989   Message #58027
Posted By: Martin _Ryan
10-Feb-99 - 04:58 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Path Across the Ocean/Why Left I My Hame
Subject: Lyr Add: OH WHY LEFT I MY HAME? (R. Gilfillan)
Here's the Scottish version:

OH WHY LEFT I MY HAME?
Poem by R. Gilfillan

Oh! Why left I my hame? Why did I cross the deep?
Oh! why left I the land where my forefathers sleep?
I sigh for Scotia's shore, and I gaze across the sea,
But I canna get a blink o' my ain countrie!

The palm-tree waveth high, and fair the myrtle springs,
And to the Indian maid the bulbul sweetly sings:
But I dinna see the broom wi' its tassels on the lea,
Nor hear the lintie's sang o' my ain countrie!

Oh! here no Sabbath bell awakes the Sabbath morn,
Nor sang of reapers heard amang the yellow corn:
For the tyrant's voice is here, and the wail of slaverie,
But the sun of freedom shines in my ain countrie!

There's a hope for every woe, and a balm for every pain,
But the first joys o' our heart come never back again.
There's a track upon the deep, and a path across sea,
But the weary ne'er return to their ain countrie!

Source: "The National Song Book," edited by C. Villiers Stanford, 1906