She Moved Through The Fair

My young love said to me,
My mother won't mind
And my father won't slight you
For your lack of kind.
She stepped away from me
And this she did say,
"It will not be long love
Till our wedding day."

She stepped away from me
And she moved through the fair
And fondly I watched her move here
And move there.
And she went her way homeward
With one star awake,
As the swan in the evening
Moved over the lake.

Last night she came to me,
My young love came in.
So softly she entered,
That her feet made no din.
And she came close beside me
And this she did say,
"It will not be long love
Till our wedding day."

This is an old Irish traditional song, but I adore its lyrical simplicity, and there is a genuinely haunting version of it by Van Morrison and the Chieftains on their collaboration Irish Heartbeat (1988). It occurred to me this morning that I'd not listened to this song in a couple of years, and the ethereal closing coda (with Van half-whispering half-singing 'It will not be long It will not be long It will not be long...") is one of the finest exercises in phrasal repetition that I know. The entire album, by the way, is beautiful -- if you like Irish music, it should go without saying-- with sprightly versions of "Marie's Wedding" and "I'll Tell Me Ma," and a fine setting of the poet Patrick Kavanagh's "Raglan Road." The only unfortunate thing is that the album is less than 40 minutes long. :-(

"In music the passions enjoy themselves."
--- Friedrich Nietszche, Epigrams and Interludes

You know it's going to be a weird day when I end up quoting Nietszche.... ;-)