The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #62514   Message #1012540
Posted By: masato sakurai
04-Sep-03 - 05:17 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Hunting the Hare (from Kate Rusby)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: hunting the hare
A version (English and Welsh) arranged by Joseph Haydn is in Herbert Haufrecht, Folk Songs in Settings by Master Composers (Funk & Wagnalls, 1970, pp. 163-166). The tune, though the key is C, is that posted by Mick (Date: 29 Aug 03 - 02:25 PM). The first English stanza is:

Hence away with idle sorrow,
Bane of life's uncertain hour;
Few the joys from time we borrow,
Hold them while within your pow'r.
Hunt the hare o'er hills and valleys,
Cheerful wake the rising morn;
When she from her chamber sallies,
Greet her with the early horn.

Another translation (by George Linley), which is from Songs of Wales, by Ceirog Hughes and Brinley Richards, Boosey & Co., 1873, is also given in the book. The first stanza:

Over hill and plain they're bounding,
Thro' the air they seem to fly,
Hark! the merry horn is sounding,
List! the hunter's jovial cry!
Now thro' dingle, dell and hollow,
Dart they on at fearless pace;
Oh! what joy the hounds to follow,
There's no pleasure like the chase.