Digital Tradition Mirror

Farewell to Tarwaithie (2)

Farewell to Tarwaithie (2)
(George Scroggie)

Farewell to Tarwathie
Adieu, Mormon Hill
Land of my fathers
I bid you farewell.

Your hills and your valleys,
Your mountains of heath
Still dear to my heart
Is the land of my birth.

Adieu to my comrades
May God bless you all;
My friends and relations
I bid you farewell.

For a while I must leave you
And go to the sea
Heaven prosper the bonny ship
That I will go wi'

May He who never slumbers
From danger us keep,
While viewing his wonders
On the mighty deep.

Our ship she is rigged
And ready to sail,
Our crew they are anxious
To follow the whale.

Where the icebergs float,
And the stormy winds blow;
Where the land and the ocean
Is covered with snow.

The cold clime of Greenland
Is barren and bare;
No seed time nor harvest
Is ever known there.

The birds here sing sweetly
On mountain and dale;
But the songsters are mute
In the land of the whale.

There is no habitation
For man to live there
The king of that country
Is the fierce Greenland bear.

But when I am sailing
Upon the wide main,
Be cheerful and happy
Till I come again.

And you my dear mother,
O weep not for me,
But trust in His mercy
That ruleth the sea.

Who saves on the ocean
As well's on the land,
For we are all guarded
By His mighty hand.

He rides on the billows
And walks on the wave
His arm is powerful
To sink or to save.

And though I be absent
You need never fear;
There's no place so distant
But God will be there.

I will pray night and morning,
Dear parents, for you;
For the hope of returning
Takes the sting from adieu.


George Scroggie
from "The Peasant's Lyre, A Collection of Miscellaneous Poems"
Strichen, Aberdeen, printed by William Bennett 1857
This song was also recorded by Ewan MacColl on the Washington album,
"Whaling Songs," MacColl and Lloyd. It is also in the anthology,
"The Singing Island," MacColl-Seeger. The notes, in both cases
by Lloyd give no authorship but do state that the tune is also
that of "Green Bushes" and "The Waggoner"s Lad."
A further look at "The Singing Island" yields the following,
Fareweel To Tarwathie -- Contributed by A.L. Lloyd,
who learned it from John Sinclair, a native ofBallater,
in Durban, South Africa, 1938.

JRO

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!

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