Border Widow’s Lament

from Tales of Love War & Death by Hanging by Ray Cooper

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lyrics

The Border Widows Lament

My love he built me a bonny bower
He covered it over with the lily flower
A bonnier bower you never did see
That my true love he builded me

There came a man in the middle of day
Who spied his sport then he went away
He brought the king that very night
Who broke my bower and slew my night

He slew my knight to me so dear
He slew my knight and seized his gear
My servants all for life did flee
And they left me in extremity

I sewed his shroud making my moan
I watched his corpse myself alone
I watched his corpse both night and day
No living creature came that way

I bore his body on my back
And whiles I walked and whiles I sat
I digged a grave to lay him in
And I heaped him with the turf so green

And don't you think my heart was sore
As I lay the earth on his yellow hair
Oh don't you think my that heart was woe
As I turned around away to go?

No living man I'll love again
Since that my lovely knight was slain
With just one lock of his yellow hair
I'll chain my heart for evermore

Traditional, arranged Ray Cooper
A Scottish border ballad from the lawless times of the 16th century.
The soldiers come in the middle of the night and leave a man hanging from his own front gate. Everyone flees, and the widow is left alone to bury the body.
This image always reminds me of the wars in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990's.

credits

from Tales of Love War & Death by Hanging, released October 1, 2010

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about

Ray Cooper UK

Ray Cooper is a singer/songwriter and multi instrumentalist currently residing in the depths of Sweden where he moved in 2000. He left Oysterband in 2013 after a year in which they picked up 3 BBC2 Folk Awards and appeared live on the "Later..with Jools Holland' show. Since then he has carved out a successful solo career.

Photo by Kerstin Maier ... more

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