The Logan Water is certainly an ancient melody even if it appears in writing only in the eighteenth century; some consider it an Irish air, others assert its “Scottishness”; the melody has often been used to give voice to melancholy songs or even as a funeral march.
LOGAN WATER
Logan Braes
Robert Burns wrote “Logan Braes” in 1793 probably taking inspiration from the version of Logan Water (Glencorse Burn) written by John Mayne in 1781; the scenario is the bucolic one on the banks of the Logan and a shepherdess regrets the happy days spent enjoying herself with her shepherd
“Thae days are gane,
When I wi ’grief did herd alane,
While my dear lad did fight his faes,
Far, far frae me and Logan braes. “
Burns takes up the theme, transforming it more resolutely into an antiwar song and precisely for its pacifist content, the text is published only at the beginning of the new century.
Jim Malcolm in Acquaintance, 2007
MacPolvo live
Logan Water, Hob. XXXIa:163 · Haydn Trio Eisenstadt, Jamie MacDougall & Lorna Anderson (music composed by Franz Joseph Haydn)
I O Logan (1), sweetly didst thou glide, That day I was my Willie’s bride, And years sin syne hae o’er us run, Like Logan to the simmer sun: But now thy flowery banks appear Like drumlie Winter, dark and drear, While my dear lad maun face his faes, Far, far frae me and Logan braes. II Again the merry month of May Has made our hills and valleys gay; The birds rejoice in leafy bowers, The bees hum round the breathing flowers; Blythe Morning lifts his rosy eye, And Evening’s tears are tears o’ joy: My soul, delightless a’ surveys, While Willie’s far frae Logan braes. III Within yon milk-white hawthorn bush, Amang her nestlings sits the thrush: Her faithfu’ mate will share her toil, Or wi’ his song her cares beguile; But I wi’ my sweet nurslings here, Nae mate to help, nae mate to cheer, Pass widow’d nights and joyless days, While Willie’s far frae Logan braes. IV O wae be to you, Men o’ State (2), That brethren rouse to deadly hate! As ye make mony a fond heart mourn, Sae may it on your heads return! How can your flinty hearts enjoy The widow’s tear, the orphan’s cry? But soon may peace bring happy days, And Willie hame to Logan braes |
English translation I O Logan(1), sweetly did you glide That day I was my Willie’s bride, And years since then have over us run Like Logan to the summer sun. But now your flowery banks appear Like dull winter, dark and dreary, While my dear lad must face his foes Far, far from me and Logan hillsides II Again the merry month of May Has made our hills and valleys gay; The birds rejoice in leafy bowers, The bees hum round the breathing flowers; Blythe Morning lifts his rosy eye, And Evening tears are tears of joy: My soul with no delight all surveys, While Willie is far from Logan hillsides III Within yonder milk-white hawthorn bush, Among her nestlings sits the thrush: Her faithful mate will share her toil, Or with his song her cares beguile. But I with my sweet nurslings here, No mate to help, no mate to cheer, Pass widowed nights and joyless days, While Willie is far from Logan hillsides IV O, woe upon you, Men of State, That brethren rouse in deadly hate! As you make many a fond heart mourn, So may it on your heads return! You remember not amid your cruel joys The widow’s tears, the orphan’s cries; But soon may peace bring happy days, And Willie home to Logan hillsides! |
NOTES
1) Logan Water is a river that flows from the hills in the south west of Scotland, between Lesmahagow and Muirkirk. The Irish song “My Lagan Love” refers instead to the Lagan that flows in Donegal (or Belfast)
2) Burns informed Thomson in April 1793 that he felt ‘Logan burns & Logan braes’ to be ‘sweetly susceptible of rural imagery’, before in June of the same year sending this song.. and explained its mood and inspiration thus: ‘Have you ever, my dear Sir, felt your bosom ready to burst with indignation, on reading of, or seeing, how these mighty villains who divide kingdom against kingdom, desolate provinces & lay Nations waste out of the wantonness of Ambition, or often from still more ignoble passions?’
http://www.bartleby.com/270/3/281.html
https://blueloulogan.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/songs-of-logan-1-logan-braes/
http://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Logan_Water
http://www.burnsscotland.com/items/v/volume-i,-song-042,-page-42-logan-water.aspx
http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/group.php?gmid=53555&do=discuss
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=35237
https://burnsc21.glasgow.ac.uk/o-logan-sweetly-didst-thou-glide/
ttp://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/GrD61123.html
