Down By The Salley Gardens

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Down By The Salley Gardens (Irish: Gort na Saileán) is a traditional Irish song. Sometimes known as "An Traigh Mughdhorna", "The Maids of Mourne Shore" and "The Mourne Shore", it can be sung in either English or Irish.

It is sometimes listed as a poem by William Butler Yeats, after the words were included in a book of his poems, The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems, published in 1889. However, the case is that Yeats published the poem as a tribute to oral tradition; it was based on a fragment of a song he recalled hearing an old Irish woman sing. Yeats' noted that This is an attempt to reconstruct an old song from three lines imperfectly remembered by an old peasant woman in the village of Ballysodare, Sligo, who often sings them to herself. The verse was subsequently set to music by Herbert Hughes to the air The Maids of the Mourne Shore in 1909. There is also a vocal setting by the poet and composer Ivor Gurney, which was published in 1938.

"Salley" is an anglicisation of the Irish saileach, meaning willow, i.e., a tree of the genus Salix. Willows are known as "salleys", "sallies" or "salley trees" in parts of Ireland.[1]

1 Lyrics
- 1.1 English
- 1.2 Irish
2 Recordings
3 External links

[edit] Lyrics

[edit] English

Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;
She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.

In a field by the river my love and I did stand,
And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.
She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;
But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.

[edit] Irish

Is thíos i nGort na Saileán
sea casadh dom mo rún
Ba luath a cos ar féar ann
is ba luaineach a leagan siúil
Sé dúirt sí liom bheith suaimhneach
mar a fhásann duilliúr is bláth
Ach bhí mise óg is uaibhreach
is níor éist mé le guth mo ghrá.

Is thíos cois abhann go déanamh
sea sheas mé le mo ghrá
Gualainn ar ghualainn le chéile
is leag sí orm lámh
Sé dúirt sí liom bheith suaimhneach
mar a fhásann féar aníos
Ach bhí mise óg is uaibhreach
'stá na deora anois mo chloí

Is thíos i nGort na Saileán
sea casadh dom mo rún...

[edit] Recordings

The song has been part of the repertoire of many singers and groups. Notable recordings include:

Marianne Faithfull recorded the song on her joint-debut album of folk songs titled Come My Way (1965)
The Rankin Family covered this song on their greatest hits album Collection
Clannad included the song (sung in English) on their first live album Clannad in Concert (1979), Celtic Myst (1997), and on the live album Clannad Live in Concert (2005).
Now And In A Time To Be, a collection of Yeats poems set to music. The version included on that album was sung in Irish by Tamalin.
Male soprano Aris Christofellis accompanied by Theodore Kotepanos on piano recorded an arrangement of the song by Benjamin Britten on his album Recital.
Órla Fallon of Celtic Woman on her solo CD The Water Is Wide
Meav, also from Celtic Woman, sung it on her solo cd Celtic Journey.
Recorded as flute instrumental by flutist James Galway
Lim Hyung Joo recorded the song (sung in English) and conditionally titled his album "The Sally Gardens".
The Whiffenpoofs of Yale have released a number of recordings (in English) with additional verses of a John Kelley arrangement of the Hughes melody.
Joseph McManners sang the song, too.
Angelo Branduardi made an italian version with the same Yeats' lyrics and a music of theirs in the album Branduardi canta Yeats
Redbird [2] (Kris Delmhorst,[3] Jeffrey Foucault,[4] [5] Peter Mulvey [6]) recorded Sally Gardens as track 14 on their self-titled 1994 album [7].
Irish-American singer Maura O'Connell recorded the song on her album Wandering Home.
Black 47 treatment in 40 Shades of Blue [8]