At the EK Bardic Competition, His Majesty King Gryffith II made his request of me for the final round, which was to sing a song I had written myself. “What kind, Your Majesty?” I asked him. And he chose, “Sad.”
So I sang this song, which I don’t sing often. I wrote it for my grandmother when she died, for she loved music and my singing. At the end of her life I would sit by her bed and sing through the hymnal page by page… So this is her song, but also the song we all can sing to those who have sailed before us.
Here is the song in mp3 format.
Farewell my bonny
Farewell my love
Where you have gone I canna go
For soon you will stand
On the good Caanan land
Where we’ll meet
After my last tomorrow
Oh the sea has enthralled you
For all of your days
I ne’re dared to call you my own
Watching your sleep
I would almost weep
Knowing someday you’d be summoned home.
For thirty long years
I ha’ loved you so well
Though your flower is faded and pale
I know my mere hand
Can’t keep you on the sand
When the captain says its time to sail
I knew awaiting
on that bonny shore
Are many who’ve said their goodbyes
You’ve been called to the sea
By one greater than me
So I wave as the salt fills my eyes
May the ocean’s wide waters
Fall calm before you
May a fair wind blow at your command
And bless’d that ship be
That takes you far from me
With the cargo bound for Canaan land