English

I ride through a dark, dark Land by night,
Where moon is none and no stars lend light,
And rueful winds are blowing,
Yet oft have I trodden this way ere now,
With summer zephyrs a-fanning my brow,
And the gold of the sunshine glowing.

I roam by a gloomy Garden-wall;
The deathstricken leaves around me fall;
And the night-blast wails its dolors;
How oft with my love I have hitherward strayed
When the roses flowered, and all I surveyed
Was radiant with Hope's own colors!

I know I have a lot of faults
I never even see,
But my neighbor knows about them,
For he is watching me!

I try to walk exemplary,
Obeying God's commands,
But never see the little sins
My neighbor understands!

I readily can see his faults,
They stand out sharp and strong,
And am amazed he cannot see
What is so clearly wrong.

And then I am convicted
As the Spirit whispers low,
“If you would truly judge yourself,
No judgment you would know.”

I humbly ask God's pardon,

I hear leaves drinking rain;
I hear rich leaves on top
Giving the poor beneath
Drop after drop;
'Tis a sweet noise to hear
These green leaves drinking near.

And when the Sun comes out,
After this Rain shall stop,
A wondrous Light will fill
Each dark, round drop;
I hope the Sun shines bright:
'Twill be a lovely sight.

Ihear in my heart, I hear in its ominous pulses,
All day, on the road, the hoofs of invisible horses;
All night, from their stalls, the importunate tramping and neighing.
Let cowards and laggards fall back! but alert to the saddle,
Straight, grim, and abreast, go the weatherworn, galloping legion,
With a stirrup-cup each to the lily of women that loves him.

The trail is through dolor and dread, over crags and morasses;
There are shapes by the way, there are things that appal or entice us:

I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls,
And each damp thing that creeps and crawls
Went wobble-wobble on the walls.

Faint odours of departed cheese,
Blown on the dank, unwholesome breeze,
Awoke the never-ending sneeze.

Strange pictures decked the arras drear,
Strange characters of woe and fear,
The humbugs of the social sphere.

One showed a vain and noisy prig,
That shouted empty words and big
At him that nodded in a wig.

And one, a dotard grim and gray,
Who wasteth childhood's happy day

Ibring you the scent of the earth on my body,
The smell of the leaves in my hair;
I come with the wind and the water upon me,
And never a care!

I been walking all day
and all night too
I been walking all day
and all night too
'Cause my meal-ticket woman have quit me
and I can't find no work to do

I picken up the news paper
and I looked in the ads
Says I picken up the news paper
and I looken in the ads
And the policeman come along
and he arrested me for vag

(Now, boys, you ought to see me in my black and white suit

It won't do.)

I said, Judge,
Judge, what may be my fine?
Lord I say Judge,
Judge, what may be my fine?

I been drifting and
rolling along
the road

Looking
for my room and board

Like a log I've
been jammed on
the bank
So hungry
I've grew lean and lank

Get me a pick and
shovel, dig down
in the ground
Gonna keep on
digging till the blues come down

Mmmmmmmmmm mmmmmm mmmm
Mmmmmm mmmmmm
Mmmm mmmm mmmm mmmm

I've got the blues
for my sweet man
in jail
Now and the judge
won't let me go his bail

I've been rolling and
drifting from shore

The hunt is up,
The hunt is up,
And now it is almost day;
And he that's in bed with another man's wife,
It's time to get him away.

‘How brent 's your brow, my Lady Elspat!
How golden yallow is your hair!
Of all the maids of fair Scotland,
There 's nane like Lady Elspat fair.’

‘Perform your vows, Sweet William,’ she says,
‘The vows which ye ha made to me,
An at the back o my mother's castle
This night I 'll surely meet wi thee.’

But wae be to her brother's page,
Who heard the words this twa did say!
He 's told them to her lady mother,
Who wrought Sweet William mieckle wae.

For she has taen him Sweet William,