Cuach Mo Lon Dubh Buí

Cuckoo, my Yellow Blackbird
Home > Artists > Altan | Submitted by DerekP
Song by Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh; arranged by Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Mark Kelly, Ciaran Curran, Dermot Byrne and Ciaran more...

Song by Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh; arranged by Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Mark Kelly, Ciaran Curran, Dermot Byrne and Ciaran Tourish. This song appears on Altan’s eighth studio album The Blue Idol, released in February 2002.

From irishpage.com

This strange little songs tells the story of a man whose wife was lured away by the Gruagach, a hairy Otherworld figure, whose name may contain a double-entendre. The title, which is also used as a chorus, is essentially untranslatable but makes reference to a cuckoo and a yellow blackbird! On Tory Island it is widely believed that the song was got from the slua sí, or fairies. James Stephens translated a version
of this song as ‘The Brown and the Yellow Ale’, and it was reputed to be the favourite song of the great Irish writer, James Joyce.

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Irish

English

Myself and my wife
Were walking the highway
Oh love of my heart
And whom should we meet
But the Golden Haired Groogach
Cooach mo Lon Du Bui

He asked me to say
If my wife was my daughter
Oh love of my heart
I answered him truly
She was my life partner
Cooach mo Lon Du Bui

Will you give her to me
For life and for ever?
Oh love of my heart
And if you refuse me
I'm likely to harm you
Cooach mo Lon Du Bui

You go the highways
And I'll go go the byways
Oh love of my heart
And whoever she follows
Can claim her for ever
Cooach mo Lon Du Bui

He went the highways
And I went the byways
Oh love of my heart
So she followed the Groogach
As he was the younger
Cooach mo Lon Du Bui

I returned to my home
Dejected and broken
Oh love of my heart
For three quarters
I lay down alone and forlorn
Cooach mo Lon Du Bui

She stayed with the Groogach
For a year and three quarters
Oh love of my heart
And then she returned,
A disgraced and shamed "molly"
Cooach mo Lon Du Bui

Oh, servant in yonder
How well are you feeling?
Oh love of my heart
In spite of my friends
I still like my enemies
Cooach mo Lon Du Bui

What would you do
If in death I should leave you?
Oh love of my heart
With five oaken boards
I'd make a coffin to suit you
Cooach mo Lon Du Bui

A hug today and a hug tomorrow
Oh love of my heart
And another wee hug
Everday through the season
Cooach mo Lon Du Bui

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