An Spealadóir

The Scytheman
This is a traditional Irish song arranged by Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Éamon Doorley, Shane McGowan and Billy Mag Fhloin more...

This is a traditional Irish song arranged by Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Éamon Doorley, Shane McGowan and Billy Mag Fhloinn. Is appears on Muireann’s solo debut album Daybreak: Fáinne an Lae, released in 2006. From Dingle in the Kerry Gaeltacht, Muireann has a musical family background. She is a singer and a flute player and a member of the group Danu.

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Irish

English

By mid-autumn I was spent
My story was a very sad one
Sick, sorrowful and weary was I
Without consolation in life
My little field of grass uncut
On account of the family of Brackloon
And the neighbors' grass already cut
And dried by the sun

Chorus:
If I had a scythe from England
And a handle from Lough Leane
A stone and a board and sand on it
From the country of O'Neill
I would give it an edge in the morning
That would stand for the whole week
And the acre would be cut
By daybreak

I was thinking to myself
At night while I slept
That there were two brave young men
Boasting of their sharpness
My message was dispatched to them
To cut my little field for me
And loving, welcoming, responsive
They both came

(Chorus)

Ready and sharp they had a scythe
At daybreak
And they leaned cleanly and tidily
Into the work of cutting the grass
A little before milking time
And a great part of the day not yet spent
Enough of it was cut
And it shaved to the earth

(Chorus 2x)

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Chords

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