At Your Request – Lyrics

SNOSHTI SI RADA

VCHERA MINA

Vchera minah libe dzhanum,
Prez Pirin planina.

Refrain: Okh libe, libe dzhanum,
Prez Pirin Planina. (Repeat last line)

Tamo si savarih, libe,
Yaneto Sandanski.

Yaneto Sandanski, libe,
S pushka manlihera.

I na mene duma, libe,
Duma i produma:

“Ako si si moma, libe,
Moma Makendonka;

So nazi da doidesh, libe,
S Turtsi da se biem.”

Yesterday I passed over the Pirin mountains.
There I met Yane Sandanski.
Yane Sandanski with a gun on his shoulder.
He spoke to me. He said:
If you are a true Macedonian maiden;
Come with us to fight the Turks together

MORE CHICHA RECHE

JOHN BULL, THE ENGLISHMAN, THE IRISHMAN, AND THE SCOTSMAN

traditional Canadian (from the repertoire of Angelo Dornan of New Brunswick

John Bull he was an Englishman and went to tramp one day,
With three pence in his pocket for to take him a long way.
He went along for many a mile, but no one did he see,
‘Til he fell in with an Irishman, whose name was Paddy McGee.

“Good morning Pat,” says John to him,” and where are you going to?”
Says Pat, “I hardly know myself, I want some work to do.”
“Do you have any money?” says John Bull unto Pat.
Says Pat, “It’s the very thing I’m lacking, for I haven’t got a rap.”

Then they overtook a Scotsman who like them was out of work.
By the look of him he was hard up, and hungry as a Turk.
“Can you lend me a shilling Scotty?” at last says Paddy McGee.
“I am sorry I canna,” said the Scotsman, “for I hae nae got ane bawbee.”

“Well I three pence have,” said the Englishman, “but what can we do with that?”
“We’ll buy threepenny worth of whiskey! That’ll cheer us up,” says Pat.
“Nae dinna do that,” said the Scotsma, “I’ll tell you what to do;
We’ll buy threepenny worth of oatmeal, and I’ll make some nice bergoo.”

“No I think we’d better buy a loaf,” the Englishman did say;
“And then in yonder haystack, our hunger sleep away.
We can get a drink of water, from yonder purling stream,
And the loaf will be his in the morning who has had the biggest dream.”

Well the Englishman dreamt by the morning, a million men had been
For ten years digging a turnip up, the biggest ever seen.
When at last they’d got that turnip up, by working night and day,
It took five million horses, that turnip to cart away.

Said the Scotsman, “I’ve been dreaming fifty million men had been
For fifty years making a boiler, the biggest ever seen.”
“Why what was if for?” said the Englishman, “Was it mad of copper or tin?”
“It was made of copper,” said the Scotsman, “for to boil your turnip in.”

Said the Irishman, “I’ve been dreaming and awful great big dream.
I dreamt I was in a haystack, by the side of a purling stream.
I dreamt that you, and Scottie were there. Why as sure as I’m an oaf;
By the powers, I dreamt I was hungry… so I got up and ate the loaf!”

JACK TAR ON SHORE traditional English

Come all you ladies gay who delight in sailor’s joys.
Come listen while I sing to you a song.
When Jack Tar he comes on shore,
With his gold and silvery store,
There’s none that can get rid of it so soon.

Now the first thing Jack requires is a fiddler to his hand,
And like-wise the best ale of every kind,
And a pretty girl like-wise
With her dark and roving eyes;
Our sailor lad lies easy in his mind.

So Jack, he does go on ’til his money is all gone,
And the flash girls have departed for another;
And the landlady she cries,
“Pay your fare and get outside.
Your cargo’s gone and you’ve met stormy weather!”

So Jack in all his rage, he throws bottles at her head,
And like-wise all the glasses he lets fly;
And the poor girl in her fright
Calls the watchman of the night,
Saying come and take away this sailor boy.

So Jack must understand that his ship lies well at hand;
And to her, he goes straight down.
With a sweet and pleasant gale,
He unfurls her lofty sail;
Bid’s adieu to the flash girls of the town.

PATRICK SPENSER (Child 58)

a traditional Scottish ballad reinterpreted by Bob Coltman with minor alterations by Mark Gilston

WE PARTED ON THE SHORE

Now it’s years and years and years and years and years and years and years,
Since I left my bonny lassie on the shore.
I never will forget that day; she cried so many tears. I’d never seen so many tears before!
She asked me if I’d think of her, and I said, perhaps I would,
But I’d often broke my promises before;
And then she stood and sat and wept, and then began to weep,
And when I saw that we parted on the shore.

And the tear fell gently from her eye…. (Yes it did and it nearly drowned the dog that was standing there at the time.)

CHORUS:
And we parted on the shore. We parted on the shore.
I said, “Good-bye, my love, I’m bound for Baltimore.”
I kissed her on the cheek and the crew began to roar.
Il-lee-O, il-lee-O, we parted on the shore.

Now for years and years and years and years and years and years and years,
I sailed away across the raging main.
And often I’d lie in my bunk and hope, and hope and hope and hope,
And hope to never see her face again.
Now the more I’d lie in my bunk and hope, I’d lie in my bunk and hope.
I’d lie in my bunk and hope and hope some more.
And then the tears would stop and stand and sit and roll and roll
Just like the waves that roll along the shore.

Now for years and years and years and years and years and years and years,
I never lived on anything but hope.
Until one day I went on board the upper deck to wash my face,
And the captain swore I tried to eat the soap.
So he asked me to his cabin and he had me drink a drink;
A drink of drink I’d never drunk before.
And when I’d drunk that drink of drink the captain had me drink….
I thought of her I’d left upon the shore.

CHORUS:
When we parted on the shore. We parted on the shore.
I said, “Good-bye, my love, I’m bound for Baltimore.”
I kissed her on the cheek and the crew began to roar.
Il-lee-O, il-lee-O, we parted on the shore.

THE WATER IS WIDE traditional American version of a widely known English song from the singing of Almeda Riddle of northern Arkansas