I have long since stopped bothering trying to make sense of some folk/trad lyrics. They often confuse me. Like in the version of "Ay Waukin, O" by Jock Tamson's Bairns, it's a girl pining after her "lad" in the penultimate verse, but switches to a lad pining after his lass in the final verse. Other times I get confused by who's supposed to be speaking and seeming confusion in the motivation of the participants in a story. I always just put it down to a combination of lyrics becoming bastardized and confused between versions over time, and my own lifelong trouble with understanding lyrics and poetry in general.