Folk Songs

Farewell to gay Llangyfelach
And all the young girls;
I'm going to see which is better,
The faraway lands or my own country

Onwards I marched
Until I came to Cowbridge town,
And there they were, all full of fun,
Enlisting men to the Duke of York

I turned my head and went into a house
Where silver and gold were flowing free,
The drums and fifes carried the tune –
And I enlisted in the Light Dragoons.

After I'd marched up to London,
We were pressed to a hard duty,
To handle the gun and the naked sword,
The lead bullets and the hot [gun] powder

A despatch came very early in the morning,
Another came that afternoon:
That the English fleet was sailing out
Over the blue ocean to do battle.

Farewell my father and my dear mother,
Who have nurtured me and brought me up
Most tenderly in a pure home,
And a hundred farewells to the pretty girls

If some should ask who made this song,
Tell them it was a pretty young girl
Who is praying, night and day,
For her darling sweetheart to be set free.

After I'd waited a long time
He was freed, I'm telling the truth;
He returned to his native home,
I was able to plant a kiss on his lips

He brought a great store ofmoney with him
From the far countries across the sea,
And the first thing he did, out of love [for me]
Was to search for his dear girl.

A priest was quickly sent for
To bind we two as one;
We'll live in plenty all our lives,
And I'll sleep in his arms each night.

Take counsel, merry girls,
If your love should go across the sea:
Not to wander in some foolish caprice
But to be true till he returns.

I had the chance, many a time,
To take a sweetheart, six or seven,
But believe you me, it was much better
To remember my boy in the faraway lands.

He took my heart away with him,
But gave his own in its place
It was love’s sweet law of attraction
That made our dear hearts as one.