Loreena McKennitt - The wind that shakes the barley

I sat within a valley green, Sat there with my true love
My heart strove to choose between, Me old love and the new love
The old for her, the new that made, Me think on Ireland dearly
While soft the wind blew down the glade, And shook the golden barley

Twas hard the mournful words to frame, To break the ties that bound us
But harder still to bear the shame, Of foreign chains around us
And so I said, The mountain glen, Ill seek at morning early
And join the brave united men, While soft wind shook the barley

Twas sad I kissed away her tears, Her arms around me clinging
When to my ears that fateful shot, Came out the wildwood ringing
The bullet pierced my true loves breast, In lifes young spring so early
And there upon my breast she died, While soft wind shook the barley

I bore her to some mountain stream, And manys the summer blossom
I placed with branches soft and green, About her gore-stained bosom
I wept and kissed her clay-cold corpse, Then rushed oer vale and valley
My vengeance on the foe to wreak, While soft wind shook the barley

Twas blood for blood without remorse, I took at Oulart Hollow
I placed my true loves clay-cold corpse, Where mine full soon may follow
Around her grave I wondered drear, Noon, night and morning early
With aching heart when eer I hear, The wind that shakes the barley

music: traditional, arranged by Loreena McKennitt
lyrics: Robert Dwyer Joyce
From: The wind that shakes the barley (2010).

A live version appears on Troubadours on the Rhine (2012).

 
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created: 3 December 2010
last modified: 19 February 2012