Translation Time

Edmund Ryan of the Hill, was an Irish Earl who was disenfranchised and outlawed by Cromwell after the Battle of the Boyne. Rather than fly to exile in France or Spain he stayed and continued trying to rally some kind of resistance. In this song he is hard hunted and seeking the shelter of an old girlfriend. The two were betrayed by a neighbor hoping to receive a cash reward offered by the British. The reward was never paid. The translation is courtesy of Donal O'Sullivan.

"Oh who is without
That with passionate shout
Keeps beating my bolted door?"

"I am Ned of the Hill
Forspent wet and chill
From long trudging marsh and moor"

"My love, fond and true
What else could I do
But shield you from wind and from weather?
When the shots fall like hail
They us both shall assail
And mayhap we shall die together."

"Through forest and through snow
Tired and hunted I go
In fear both from friend and from neighbor
My horses run wild
My acres untilled
And they all of them lost to my labor
But it grieves me far more
Than the loss of my store
That there's none who would shield me from danger
So my fate it must be
To fare eastward o'er sea
And languish amid the stranger"


3B's