Ailein duinn

Ailein duinn ("Dark-haired Alan") is a traditional Scottish song for solo female voice, a lament that was written in Gàidhlig for Ailean Moireasdan ("Alan Morrison") by his fiancée, Annag Chaimbeul ("Annie Campbell"). Ailean Moireasdan was a sea captain from the isle of Lewis. In the spring of 1786 he left Stornoway to go to Scalpay, Harris, where he was to be engaged to Annag Chaimbeul ("Annie Campbell"). Unfortunately, they sailed into a storm and all the crew sank with the vessel, off the coast of the Shiant islands. The broken-hearted Annag wasted away through grief and composed this lament for her lost love. Annag lost her will to live and died a few months afterwards. Because there was not enough soil on the barren island of Scalpay, her father took her in her coffin by boat to a cemetery on the main island of Harris. However, a storm caused the coffin to be blown off her father's boat and it washed up on the same island her fiancé's body had been found.

Lyrics

There are many versions of the lyrics and of the melody; the following version was used in the film Rob Roy (the untranslated words are vocables):

Rob Roy version Gura mise tha fo éislean Moch sa mhaduinn is mi 'g éirigh Sèist: Ò hì shiùbhlainn leat Hì ri bhò hò ru bhì Hì ri bhò hò rinn o ho Ailein Duinn, ò hì shiubhlainn leat Ma 's e 'n cluasag dhut a' ghaineamh Ma 's e leabaidh dhut an fheamainn Ma 's e 'n t-iasg do choinnlean geala Ma 's e na ròin do luchd-faire Dh'òlainn deoch ge b' oil le càch e De dh'fhuil do choim 's tu 'n déidh do bhathadh

English translation How sorrowful I am When I rise early in the morning Chorus (after each verse): Ò hì, I would go with you Hì ri bhò hò ru bhì Hì ri bhò hò rinn o ho Brown-haired Alan, ò hì, I would go with you If the sand be your pillow If the seaweed be your bed If the fish are your candles bright If the seals are your watchmen I would drink, though all would abhor Of your heart's blood after you were drowned

References

"Sea Room. An Island Life in the Hebrides" by Adam Nicholson.

External links

• Campbell, Margaret Shaw (1943). "Six Hebridean Songs". Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. 4 (4): 149–156. ISSN 0071-0563.
• Martínez Lema, Paulo (2013). "Do laio ao amor: tres mostras de poesía tradicional escocesa". Madrygal. Revista de Estudios Gallegos (in Galician) (16): 201–204. ISSN 1138-9664.
• Background story, words and translation, School of Scottish Studies
• Music study on Ailein Duinn
• Ailein Duinn on celticlyricscorner.net
• Lyrics and recording informations