Sealskin Jacket, The
| Garraed Galbraith |
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The Sealskin Jacket
By Garraed Galbraith (aka Tim Jennings) Copywright 2004 Note: This piece is an example of the ballad form, and varies little from the traditional style of ballad found in the pre-1600 period of English folk ballads. The Selkie is a well known Scottish and North sea mythological creature. A woman or man who can become a seal by wearing a sealskin. The jacket is my own variation. It is the source of several stories, none of which end very happily. ‘An Aba’ is an island just off the coast of Gigha, an Island in the southern Hebrides, and means ‘The Cell’. Come gather and listen O’ friends and companions Come listen and gather to me I’ll sing of a lady with eyes like the ocean As deep and as black as the sea As deep and as black as the sea When I was a young man I used to go fishing For fishing’s the way that I live I’d take from the Sea all the bounty she offered Though she had but little to give Though she had but little to give A poor man was I, but I loved well the ocean And sailed her from ‘morn unto night Alone I would sail her and sing to her softly Beneath a moon shining so bright ‘Twas there on the rocks by the pool of ‘An Aba’ I first glimpsed her beauty so rare She swam in the moonlight, with grace of an otter The starshine a crown in her hair The starshine a crown in her hair I watched as she swam in the light of a moonbeam Her skin soft and white as the snow She turned as she heard the soft splash of my paddle Her eyes filled with wonder and woe Her eyes filled with wonder and woe ‘Young man, you have caught me’ she sang to me sofly Her voice like the song of the sea “And now that you’ve seen me in naught but the moonlight You now must be married to me”. She climbed to the rocks and she fetched there a jacket A wondrous jacket indeed ‘Twas made of black Sealskin, with fine silver buttons All trimmed in bright coral and bead All trimmed in bright coral and bead She walked to me slowly. Her eyes never wavered “Wear this when you go out to sea. For the day that you do not, that day I will leave you!” Said I “Then it never shall be.” Said I “Then it never shall be.” We married that evening, out there on the ocean My boat was our soft bridal bed The waves sang so sweetly as we travelled homeward. For I, and the woman I’d wed. Each day on the ocean, I wore the fine jacket And great was the luck that I knew Each night on returning, she’d kiss me so sweetly We swore that we’d always be true. We swore that we’d always be true. She bore me two sons and a beautiful daughter And happy and joyous were we The girl was a beauty, with eyes like her mothers The boys were both fishers like me The boys were both fishers like me The years passed us by and my sons grew to manhood And they had the luck just like me We sailed on the ocean and sang to her softly And brought home the gifts of the sea But fate can be cruel and the waters are fickle And storms are the sailor-man’s bane For out on the ocean, a tempest engulfed us My mast, it was snapped by the strain My mast, it was snapped by the strain It dashed out our hull on the rocks by “An Aba” ‘Twas there I was thrown overboard. The lightning was flashing. The thunder was blasting. About us the waves and winds roared. About us the waves and winds roared. I swam to the rocks in my fine sealskin jacket That jacket it weighted me down ‘But never’ I thought ‘Can I be parted from her! O’ surely ‘tis better to drown’ I do not remember just how they did save me Those strapping and brave boys of mine For when I awoke, at the dawn of a new day Gone was my jacket so fine Gone was my jacket so fine I ran to our homestead to stop her from leaving To beg her and make her to stay But late in that evening she left me forever And black was the dawn of that day And black was the dawn of that day Beware all ye young men who love well the ocean Who sing to the waves and the tide Or else you may meet a maid, there on the water, Or else she may come home your bride …For I have a daughter who look like her mother With eyes deep and black as the sea And she’s making a jacket. A fine sealskin jacket And soon she will go far from me And soon she will go far from me …And soon she will go to the sea. |
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