Lyr Req: Weary of Lying Alone

Subject: Weary of Lying Alone
From: Bearheart
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 10:22 AM

Looking for words to this Scottish song, and any backround on it others would care to offer...

Thanks Bekki

Subject: Lyr Add: WEARY FROM LYING ALONE
From: IanC
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 10:50 AM

Bearheart

Do you mean this one (from here), which appears to be a version of Time to be Made a Wife?.

Weary from Lying Alone
(Trad. Arr. Karan Casey/Donald Shaw (MCPS))

One evening of late as I carelessly strayed
I espied a fair maid in deep mourn
I asked her the matter, she quickly made answer
I am weary from lying alone, alone
I am weary from lying alone

My comely young damsel come down here alongside me
And tell me of the years that have a flown
For seven long gone and eleven years around
I am weary from lying alone, alone
I am weary from lying alone

If I got a comely young man who would take me without fortune
And make me a wife of his very own
For the truth is I'll say is, I'll die in despair
If I lie any longer alone, alone
If I lie any longer alone

There's a neat sweet li'l flower in this garden alongside me
Take it away sure it is all but your own
For the flower it will fade and so also will the maid
For she's weary from lying alone,
For she's weary from lying alone.

(This is a song I learnt from the exquisite singing of Iarla O Lionaird.)

There's some comment on a version of the song by Elizabeth Cronin here.

Taim Cortha Ó bheith am' aonar im' lúi, is even more intriguing, for it turns out to be a version of I'm Weary of Lying Alone. Ó Cróinín points out that that this is an English song, whose English verses are paralleled by equivalent verses in Gaelic. Folk translations between either language are fairly rare and this one runs counter to received wisdom; namely that macaronics were made at a time when poets were starting to use English, but were insufficiently fluent to compose entire songs in that language. Here is an example of a poet who knew English well enough to translate a complete song into Irish. It suggests to me that macaronics existed not because poets suffered from any linguistic deficiency, but because some at least were linguistically ambidextrous and wanted to display the fact.

Cheers!
Ian

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Weary of Lying Alone
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 01:25 PM

Or were you thinking of "I wish I had someone to love me, someone to call me his own, someone to lie with me nightly, for I'm weary of lying alone (which is in the DT)?

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Weary of Lying Alone
From: masato sakurai
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 02:11 PM

This is the Vernon Dalhart version in the DT.

Oh I wish I had someone to love me
Someone to call me her own,
Oh I wish I had someone to live with
For I'm tired of living alone.

-- The Prisoner's Song

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Weary of Lying Alone
From: michaelr
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 03:42 PM

There's that word again: "macaronics". Would someone please provide a definition? And some cheese?

:-)Michael

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Weary of Lying Alone
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 03:49 PM

macaronics - mixing of two languages, early very commonly Latin and English, also very common with Irish & English from about the 18th c. - alternating lines of songs, from the Italian word, meaning mixed up, jumbled, etc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Weary of Lying Alone
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 03:55 PM

oops, forgot the Cheese - Barry Manilow, Englebert Humperdink, Charlotte Church, Andrew Lloyd Weber, Howard Stern, etc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Weary of Lying Alone
From: michaelr
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 04:12 PM

Thanks Bill! Learnt sumpin' agin.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Weary of Lying Alone
From: GUEST,Guest, Bearheart
Date: 30 Mar 02 - 11:18 AM

Thanks, folks, yes those are the words.. also appreciate the commentary.

Sorry not to be back sooner, but on the road and can't check in so easily...

Bekki

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Weary of Lying Alone
From: GUEST,Mary
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 11:28 AM

Hello! I know this thread is old, but I found a version of this song in the book "A Sailor's Song-bag: An American rebel in an English prison, 1777-1779" by George Gibson Carey. The book encompasses songs collected by one Timothy Conner, a privateer, during his time at Forton Prison in Falmouth. Here's the version included:

Come come pretty Sally and set you down by me
And tell me the age you are upon
Tis sixteen and one six month past and gone
And I'm weary of lying alone, I'm weary of lying alone

When I was eleven sweet heart I had seven
But now I've got never a one
And I vow and declare I'll die and despair
If I lie any longer alone, if I lie any longer alone

A sister of mine was married at nine
And Children had many a one
And I vow and declare I'll die in despair
If I lie any longer alone, if I lie any longer alone

I wish some young man would take me by the hand
And make me a Wife of his own
For I vow and declare I'll die in despair
If I lie any longer alone, if I lie any longer alone

Down in yonder Bower there grows a fine Flower
I'll pluck it and call it my own
But Flowers will fade and so will a Maid
And I'm weary of lying alone, and I'm weary of lying alone

The seas are deep I cannot wade them
Neither have I wings for to fly
I wish that I had some little small boat
For to ferry my love and I, for to ferry my love and I

...

There isn't much additional information (Conner does not include who specifically he collected songs from), and the last added line is as far as I know unique to this source.

Here's a link to the whole book at archive.org :

Sailor's Song-Bag on the Internet Archive

- Mary

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Weary of Lying Alone
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 12:22 PM

This is the one for me:

Táim Cortha ó Bheith im'Aonar i Mo Luí - Eithne Ní Uallacháin

but the ones by Bess Cronin or Iarla and Paudi O Lionaird are fine too.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Weary of Lying Alone
From: Mrrzy
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 12:41 PM

There is a line like that in my version of Willie o'Winsbury.