Siúil A Rúin
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Siúil A Rúin ("go, my love") is a traditional Irish song with English language verses and an Irish language chorus, a style known as macaronic. Other versions are known under the title "Johnny went for a soldier", with the chorus replaced with English lines, and "Buttermilk Hill", with the chorus replaced by nonsense syllables.
The history of the song is unclear. It was suggested that it refers to the "Wild Geese" of the Glorious Revolution. If it does, however, the original version has probably been lost: All versions of the song have Modern English lyrics, and not a scrap of either Irish or Early Modern English verses survives. It is not uncommon that Irish songs were translated into English, with their chorus surviving in Irish, or being transformed into nonsense words (see Caleno custure me), but in most of these cases, traces of the Irish version survive. It was also observed that the reference to the spinning wheel the girl wants to sell is more suggestive of the 19th than of the 17th century, and it is possible that the song was composed in the 1800s with the conscious intention of styling it after older songs.
It is also sung by Clannad in the album Dúlamán. It is one of the songs in Flatley's Lord of the Dance.
[edit] Text
- I wish I was on yonder hill
- 'Tis there I'd sit and cry my fill
- And every tear would turn a mill
- Is go dtí tú mo mhuirnín slán
- Chorus
- Siúil, siúil, siúil a rúin
- Siúil go sochair agus siúil go ciúin
- Siúil go doras agus ealaigh liom
- Is go dtí tú mo mhuirnín slán
- I'll sell my rock, I'll sell my reel
- I'll sell my only spinning wheel
- To buy my love a sword of steel
- Is go dtí tú mo mhuirnín slán
- I'll dye my petticoats, I'll dye them red
- And it's round the world I'll beg for bread
- Until my parents shall wish me dead
- Is go dtí tú mo mhuirnín slán
- I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
- I wish I had my heart again
- And vainly think I'd not complain
- Is go dtí tú mo mhuirnín slán
- And now my love has gone to France
- to try his fortune to advance
- If he e'er comes back 'tis but a chance
- Is go dtí tú mo mhuirnín slán
The translation of the Irish chorus is
- Go, go, go my love
- Go quietly and peacefully
- Go to the door and flee with me
- And may you go safely my dear.
