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This song appears on Clannad’s fifth album Crann Úll, released in 1980.
A bhonnáin bhuí 's é mo léan do luí 'S do chnámha sínte tar éis do ghrinn 'S ní easpa bidh, ach díobháil dí A d'fhág 'do luí thú ar chúl do chinn Is measa liom féin ná scrios na Traí Tú a bheith 'do luí ar leaca lom' Is nach ndearn' tú díth ná dola sa tír 'S nárbh fhearr leat fíon ná uisce poll
Ní hiad bhur n-éanlaith atá mé ag éagaoin An chuach, an traonach ná'n chorr bhreac Ach mo bhonnán buí, a bhí lán den chroí 'S gur chosúil liom féin é i nós 's i ndath Bhíodh sé 'síoraí 'g ól na dí Is deirtear go mbímse mar sin seal Níl aon bhraon dá bhfaighinn nach ligfinn síos Ar eagla go bhfaighinnse bás den tart
'S é 'd'iarr mo stór orm ligean den ól Nó nach mbeinnse beo ach seal beag gearr Ach dúirt mé léi gur thug sí an bhréag Is gurbh fhaidide mo shaolsa an deoch úd 'fháil Mar an bhfeiceann sibh éan an phíobáin réidh A chuaigh in éag den tart ar ball? 'S, a chomharsana cléibhe, fliuchaigí bhur mbéal Mar ní bhfaighidh sibh aon bhraon i ndiaidh bhur mbáis
Oh yellow bittern, I grieve your dying And your bones stretched out notwithstanding your humour It isn't want of food, but of the damned drink That's left you dead on your back This is worse to me than the fall of Troy You lying dead on the bare stones You brought no hurt or harm to anyone As you preferred wine to well water
It isn't your birds there that I'm lamenting The cuckoo, the corncrake or the dappled heron It's my yellow bittern, who was full of heart And was like myself in style and color He was forever drinking the draught And it's said that I am the same way There isn't a drop I could get that I wouldn't swallow For fear that I could die from thirst
My love asked me to put down the drink Or I wouldn't be alive much longer But I told her that she lied And I'd live longer if I kept on drinking Didn't you all see the bird of the long gullet Who died from thirst a little while ago? So, my bosom friends, drown your thirst As you won’t get a drop at all after you’re dead
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