Lyr Req: Irish Emigrant's Lament ('While I live...

Subject: Lyr Req: While I Live, I'll never forget the trou
From: Sorcha
Date: 11 Jul 06 - 10:09 PM

Copied from the 'Chat Room' thread....



Subject: RE: Chat Room
From: yellowdog - PM
Date: 11 Jul 06 - 04:15 PM

Hi- can anyone help?..I am searching for a complete set of words to a song which starts thus- 'While I live, I'll never forget the troubles of that day, when bound unto a foreign land our ship got underway, my friends I left at Belfast town, my love at Carrick shore, and I gave to poor old Ireland my blessings o'er and o'er...' I have heard to the tune of 'Lakes of Ponchatrain', and would love to know the words right through, or even just a title. Hope someone knows it out there...

yellowdog

Subject: Lyr ADD: Irish Emigrant's Lament
From: Sorcha
Date: 11 Jul 06 - 10:11 PM

Irish Emigrant's Lament, The

Complete text(s)

--- A ---

From John Ord, Ord's Bothy Songs and Ballads, pp. 352-353.

Och! while I live I'll never forget
The troubles of that day,
When bound into a foreign land
Our ship got under way.

My friends I left at Belfast town,
My love at Carrick shore,
And I gave to poor old Ireland
My blessing o'er and o'er.

Och! well I knew as off we sailed,
What my hard fate would be;
For, gazing on my country's hills
They seemed to fly from me.

I watched them as we sailed away
Until my eyes grew sore,
And I felt that I was doomed to walk
The Shamrock sod no more.

They say I'm now in freedom's land,
Where all men masters be;
But were I in my winding-sheet
There's none to care for me.

I must, to eat the strangers bread,
Abide the stranger's scorn,
Who taunts me with thy dear loved name
Sweet isle, where I was born.

Och! where -- och! where's the careless heart
I once could call my own?
It bade a long farewell to me
The day I left Tyrone.

Not all the wealth by hardship won
Beyond the Western main,
Thy pleasures, my own absent home,
Can bring to me again.

File: HHH235

From: http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/supptrad.html
Traditional Ballad Index

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While I Live, I'll never forget the t
From: Sorcha
Date: 11 Jul 06 - 10:12 PM

HA! I FINALLY did it! Answer in same minute...but I think it was cheating a little, and no blue clickie. Lyrics and source tho.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While I Live, I'll never forget the trou
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 11 Jul 06 - 10:46 PM

Partial source, strictly. Information from Ord's note to the song is included in the Traditional Ballad Index main entry on the song, though not in the supplement, which is a pity. Ord wrote:

"This song was written by William Kennedy, one of the Whistle-Binkie group of poets. Kennedy is the only one of this famous group regarding which no information appears in the first volume of the Whistle-Binkie series, and the only thing I have been able to learn regarding him is that he was a great friend of William Motherwell, and was also for some time British Consul at Texas, USA."

Ord also prints a tune, which the TBI does not reproduce.

See also thread  The Shamrock Sod,  which quotes a text from Ireland, and also Kennedy's (copied-and-pasted from another website). There was also an (apparently) irrelevant discursion into Lady Dufferin's 'Lament of the Irish Emigrant', which is unrelated and dealt with fairly extensively elsewhere.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While I Live, I'll never forget the t
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 Jul 06 - 01:39 AM

Well damn, Malc...do I still get the Title of Seach Queen in the Same Minute????

Subject: RE: While I Live I'll never forget-Irish Emigrants Lam
From: Leadfingers
Date: 12 Jul 06 - 05:10 AM

Sorch - I sent a PM to yellowdog suggesting he started a thread - You've done it for him ! Well done , Oh Search Queen !

Subject: RE: While I Live I'll never forget-Irish Emigrants
From: yellowdog
Date: 12 Jul 06 - 02:52 PM

Hi to all, and thanks for help with this, great to have the lyrics, and thanks for your help with using the site...I realised after posting the message I may have put it in the wrong place.

Many thanksagain, having these words means a lot, and I really appreciate it.

yellowdog

Subject: RE: While I Live I'll never forget-Irish Emigrants Lam
From: wysiwyg
Date: 12 Jul 06 - 02:54 PM

Welcome to Mudcat, yellowdog!

~S~

Subject: RE: While I Live I'll never forget-Irish Emigrants Lam
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 12 Jul 06 - 07:23 PM

The title of Search Queen in the Same Minute is yours for sure, Sorcha, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Here is the tune from Ord:

X:1
T:The Irish Emigrant's Lament
C:Words by William Kennedy (1799-1871)
B:Ord, Bothy songs and Ballads, 352-3
N:Roud 2747
N:Setting of words to melody is notional
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
M:4/4
K:F
DE|F2 G2 A3 G/F/|GF ED C2 D2|F2 G2 A2 cA|d6
w:Och!_ while I live I'-ll ne-ver for-*get The troub-les of that_ day,
fd|c2 d2 AG FA|GF ED C2 DE|FG A2 GF D2|D6|]
w:When_ bound in-to_ a_ for-*eign_ land Our_ ship_ got un-*der way.

Subject: RE: While I Live I'll never forget-Irish Emigrants Lam
From: Beer
Date: 13 Jul 06 - 06:52 AM

Would love to hear the tune.
Beer

Subject: RE: While I Live I'll never forget-Irish Emigrants Lam
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 13 Jul 06 - 10:59 AM

For those not yet familiar with abc notation, there are various ways of converting what you see above to conventional staff notation or midi sound; including two particularly useful online resources.

Just select and copy the notation, then paste in into the conversion windows at either

http://www.folkinfo.org/songs/abcconvert.php

or

http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html

and follow the instructions there. The second link offers more options, and doesn't require that you remove the spaces that will appear at the beginning of each line after the first. These are the result of copy-and-pasting from an html page, and tend to produce an odd display of staff notation at concertina.net.