Annotation:Pretty Red Girl (2) (The)

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PRETTY RED GIRL [2], THE ("The Colleen Dhas Rue" or "An Cailín Deas Ruadh"). AKA and see "Red Haired Man's Wife (1) (The)" Irish, Air (3/4 time). D Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. "I give this fine air as I learned it in early days from singers; but an instrumental setting, much ornamented, will be found in Bunting, 1840, p. 66. It is there given in the major; but I always heard it sing and played in the minor" (Joyce). Joyce gives one remembered verse to the Irish song:

A bhean-a’-tighe shéimh cuir a déirc amach cun a doill;
Beidh mo phaidir chun Dé a-cur séun agus rath air do chloinn:
Dá m-beidh mo bhean agum fhéin ni bheith mo léintín daithie air mo dhruim;
A’s go bh-fuil sí a g-Cill-teun, mo leun, agus leac air a druím.

O gentle woman of the house, give alms to a blind man;
My prayer to God will be to give prosperity and good luck to your children:
If I had my own wife my shirt would not be soiled (as it si) on my back;
But alas, she lies in Kiltane with a stone at her head.

Joyce then gives a three verse “free translation” of the song which he says was “very generally known and sung” in Limerick when he was you (c. 1840’s). The song gives “an admirable picture of the sturdy professional beggarman, as he flourished, and as I well remember him, before 1847.” The first verse goes:

Of all the trades a-going, begging is my delight;
My rent it is paid and I lay down my bags ev’ry night:
I’ll throw away care and take a long staff in my hand,
And I’ll flourish each day courageously looking for chance.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 105, p. 53-54. Roche (Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 1), 1912; No. 44, p. 23.

Recorded sources:

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