Wad ye Gang, Love- Isla St Clair (Aber) 1971, 1973
[From: School of Scottish Studies, two recordings of St Clair: 1971, Original Tape ID - SA1971.195 and 1973, Original Tape ID - SA1973.016. Their notes follow.
Found in the first line, "chaumer door," is "chamber" door from old French chaumere, a little hut. This chaumer, or chammer, was a kind of detached room of the farm-houses of yore: here slept all the young men belonging to the family [The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia].
R. Matteson 2017]
Summary - The girl sees her lover combing his hair and wonders if he ever thinks of her. He deserted her when she became pregnant and she wishes she were still a maid. She wishes to leave her baby with her mother and die of love.
Wad ye Gang, Love and Leave me Noo? sung by Isla St Clair of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire in 1973. Learned from her mother, who got it from her mother. Recorded by Hamlish Henderson. An earlier recording was made in 1971 by Fred Kent.
My love stands in yon chaumer door
Cambing[1] back his yellow hair
His curly locks I lang to see
I wonder if my laddie minds on me.
Chorus: Wad ye gang, love, and leave me noo?
Wad ye gang, love, and leave me noo?
Wad ye forsake your ain love true
To ga' off with a lassie that ye never knew?
As lang as my apron did bide doon
He followed me frae toon tae toon
But noo it's up abein[2] my knee
He passed by but kens nae me.
I wish, I wish, but I wish in vain,
O that I were a maid again,
But a maid again I will never be
Till an apple grows on a rodden[3] tree.
I wish, I wish my babe was born,
And sittin' on mather's knee
And I mysel was deid and gane
The long green growin' over me.
CHORUS: Oh he's gang, gang, he's left me noo
He's gang, gang, he's left me noo
He has forsook his ain love true
To ga' off with a lassie that he never knew?
1. combing
2. above
3. Rowan tree