The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #42479   Message #617382
Posted By: masato sakurai
27-Dec-01 - 09:15 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: The Flyting of Life and Death (Henderson)
Subject: Lyr Add: The Flytin o Life and Daith
I'll quote with the following comment.

"As well as some of the finest songs to come out of the Folk Revival, such as The Freedom Come-All-Ye, The John McLean March and Farewell to Sicily, all written to pipe tunes, Hamish Henderson wrote Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica, which earned him the Somerset Maugham Prize just after the War. One of his finest poems in Scots in undoubtedly The Flytin o Life and Daith. Flyting was the sport of argumentative scholars in the middle ages , a kind of civilised slanging match :-

Quo Life, the warld is mine,
The flooers and trees, they're aa my ain,
I am the day an the sunshine,
Quo life the warld is mine.

Quo Daith, the warld is mione,
Your lugs are deef, your een are blin
Your flooers maun dwine in my bitter win
Quo Daith, the world is mine.

Quo Life, the warld is mine,
I hae saft win's an healin rain
Aipples I hae an breid and wine
Qui life, the warld is mine.

Quo Daith, the warld is mine,
Whit sterts in dreid gangs doon in pain,
Bairns wantin breid are makin mane,
Quo Daith, the warld is mine.

Quo Life, the warld is mine,
Your deidly wark, I ken it fine,
There's maet on earth for ilka wean,
Quo life, the warld is mine.

Quo Daith, the warld is mine,
Your silly sheaves crine in my fire,
My worm keeks in your barn an byre,
Quo Daith, the warld is mine.

Quo Life, the warld is mine,
Dule on your een! Ae galliard hert
Can ban tae hell your blackest airt
Quo Life, the warld is mine.

Quo Daith, the warld is mine.
Your rantin hert in duddies braw
He winna lows my preeson waa,
Quo Daith, the warld is mine.

Quo Life, the warld is mine.
Though ye bigg preesons o marble stane
Hert's love ye canna presson in,
Quo Life, the warld is mine.

Quo Daith, the warld is mine.
I hae dug a grave and dug it deep
For war and the pest will gar ye sleep,
Quo Daith, the warld is mine.

Quo Life, the warld is mine.
An open grave is a furrow syne,
Yell no keep my seed frae faain in,
Quo Life, the warld is mine."

(From: HERE)
~Masato