Green Grass It Grows Bonnie
Source: The Stone Fiddle by Paddy Tunney
Location: New Edition, page 102 / 103
I wonder what’s keeping my truelove tonight.
I wonder what’s keeping him out of my sight.
O, little he knows all the pain I endure,
Or he would not stay from me this night I am sure.
“O love are you coming my pain to advance,
Or, love, are you waiting for a far better chance,
Or have you a sweetheart laid by you in store,
Or are you coming for to tell me that you love me no more?”
“O love, I’m not coming your pain to advance.
Or, love, do I wait for a far better chance,
Or have I but a sweetheart laid by me in store,
But I’m coming to tell you that I love you no more.”
“I have gold in my pocket and love in my heart,
But I can’t love a maiden who has got two sweethearts.
I love you just lightly like the dew on the thorn
That comes down in the evening and goes await in the morn.”
“Green grass it grows bonnie, spring water runs clear.
I weary, I weary, when I think of you, dear.
You were my first and fond truelove, but it’s now do I rue,
The fonder I loved you the falser you grew.”
Come, all you young maidens, take a warning from me.
Never build your nest on the top of a tree.
The roots they will wither, and the branches decay
Like the false-hearted young man, they will soon fade away.