Lyr Req: My Sweetheart's Like Venus (trad Welsh)

Subject: ADD: My Sweetheart's Like Venus
From: GUEST,Katy Noelle
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 02:13 PM

I found it! I know it from the Cambridge Singers tape which I've had for about 20 Years. I googled, "her eyebrows like gossamer." I came up with a bit of junk but, then, found this.

(clickety)

I have NOOOO idea if this will turn into a link. If you look for the Vancouver Cantata Singers Donations page (on google) you'll find it.


I really hope that this saves someone else's time!

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At Mudcat, there are elves that magically turn URLs into links....
-Joe Offer, Forum Moderator-

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MY SWEETHEART'S LIKE VENUS (Welsh folksong)
Gustav Holst, arr. (1874-1934) England

My sweetheart’s like Venus, she’s lovely and light,
She’s fairer than blackthorn, she’s slim and she’s white,
There’s no one is like her, from far or from near,
It’s truth I am telling for all men to hear.

Her form has the splendour of straightgrowing trees;
Her hair like the corn that is stirr’d in the breeze,
Her eyebrows like gossamer that hangs by the door;
If only she’d love me I’d ask nothing more.

My sweetheart she loves like a shower of rain,
Now clouded, now weeping, now smiling again,
But she who loves many is left without one,
A faithful, true lover has one love alone.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Sweetheart's Like Venus
From: GUEST
Date: 06 May 09 - 02:28 AM

PS I found that thanks to Jim.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Sweetheart's Like Venus
From: GUEST,Peace
Date: 06 May 09 - 01:46 AM

Found with a Google of

"Mae 'Nghariad I'n Fenws"

in quotation marks (as is)

My love is like Venus,
My love is so fair,
My love is more comely
Than roses most rare.
My love is the fairest,
Among all the youth.
And this is no boasting,
It is but the truth.

2. She's fairest and dearest
She's ever so bright;
Her cheeks are so ruddy,
Her teeth are so white,
?
Her brow is so fine;
Oh! how I would love her
If she would be mine.

Mae 'nghariad i'n Fenws,
Mae 'nghariad i'n fain,
Mae 'nghariad i'n dlysach
Na blodau y drain.
Fy 'ngariad yw'r lanaf,
A'r wynna'n y sir.
Nid canmol yr ydwyf,
Ond d'wedyd y gwir.

2. Wych eneth fach annwyl
Sy'n lodes mor lan,
A'i gruddiau mor writgoch,
A'i dannedd man man,
A'i dau lygad siriol,
A'i dwy ael fel gwawn;
Fy nghalon a'i carai
Pe gwyddwn y cawn.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Sweetheart's Like Venus
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 May 09 - 09:03 PM

The Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries gives this description:

"MY SWEETHEART'S LIKE VENUS; Welsh folk song; melody and Welsh words, J. Lloyd Williams; English translation, Steuart Wilson; arr. for mixed voices by Gustav Holst. © Nov. 3, 1933; E for. 32015; 22917"

There is an album by John Rutter & The Cambridge Singers, "Olde English Madrigals & Folk Songs at Ely Cathedral," American Gramaphone CD 500, 1990, which contains MY SWEETHEART'S LIKE VENUS.

I listened to a sound sample and it seems to contain some of the lyrics you quoted.

The Welsh title is MAE 'NGHARIAD I'N FENWS.

I found the following quote in An Essay on Pennillion Singing by John Jones, (London: Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1885). I'm not sure it's the same song, but at least it starts with the right phrase:

PENNILL PEDAIR LLINELL.

"Mae nghariad i'n fenws, mae nghariad i 'n fain,
Mae nhariad i 'n dlysach na blodeu y drain,
Fy nghariad yw'r lana' ar wyna 'n y flir,
Nid wyf yn ei chanmol ond d'wedydy gwir."—An.

Subject: RE: Lyric Req: 'My Sweetheart's Like Venus'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Jul 99 - 12:22 AM

Click to this George M. Cohan song, Vaughn, and see if it might be the one: VENUS, MY SHINING LOVE. It's close.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyric Req: 'My Sweetheart's Like Venus'
From: Vaughn
Date: 14 Jul 99 - 11:29 PM

Also found out it's originally in Welsh, but I still don't know the lyrics.

Thanks!

Subject: Lyric Req: 'My Sweetheart's Like Venus'
From:
Date: 13 Jul 99 - 11:04 PM

Hello! My now-defunct college choir sang "My Sweetheart's Like Venus," and I would love to have the lyrics, if anyone knows them. The only part I can remember, besides the melody, is

"Her eyebrows like gossamer that hangs by the door. If only she'd love me, I'd ask nothing more."

It's the only song I've ever heard in praise of a woman's eyebrows!

If you know the lyrics, please let me know. Thank you very m