my lagan love​/​an leanan​-​sí

by paul bradley

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about

Collected in 1903 from Donegal seán nos singer Proinsias Mac Suibhne (Anglo words by Seosamh MacCathmhaoil), My Lagan Love is a version of the "Fairy Lover", likely having the river as the "wee" Lagan that flows into Lough Swilly - and not the Béal Feirste watercourse at all. The tune is trad., and old.

lyrics

Where Lagan stream sings lullaby
there blows a lily fair.
The twilight's gleam is in her eye,
the night is on her hair.

And like a lovesick leanan-sí
she has my heart in thrall.
Nor life I owe, nor liberty,
for love is lord of all.

And often when the beetle's horn
hath lulled the eve to sleep,
I steal unto her shieling lorn
and through the dooring peep.

There on the cricket's singing stone
she spares the bogwood fire
and sums in sweet sad undertones
the song of my heart's desire.

Nor life I owe, nor liberty,
for love is lord of all.

credits

released March 24, 2022
PB, gtr&vox.

license

all rights reserved

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upsidedownguitar Bristol, UK

Hello, I mostly make up words and music in what other people call "stream-of-conscious": off-the-cuff. Other stuff is here too.

Shitetalking Belfast boy from Murder Mile. Blest by avenging angels. Kept alive thro' roofspace fall aet. 3. Dodged expiry in The War (1968-1998). Annexed Albion by Art. Musics since 1977. Story fermenting. Spirits not always on call to narrate. Lucky Man. Carp Dime.
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