Of all the haunting, achingly beautiful Scottish ballads, this one may be the most aching and the most beautiful. The melody is gorgeously poignant in its own right, but add the words, the raw, profoundly moving outcry of a sailor spurned by his nighean ruadh—his red-haired girl—and your heart just might break along with his. Oh I cannot live without her…for my heart’s a boat in tow…This is one of the loveliest bits of poetry ever uttered.

Loch Tay Boat Song

When I’ve done my work of day,

And I row my boat away,

Doon the waters of Loch Tay,

As the evening light is fading

And I look upon Ben Lawers

Where the afterglory glows;

And I think on two bright eyes

And the melting mouth below.

She’s my beauteous nighean ruadh,

She’s my joy and sorrow too;

And although she is untrue,

Well I cannot live without her,

For my heart’s a boat in tow,

And I’d give the world to know

Why she means to let me go,

As I sing horee horo.

Nighean ruadh, your lovely hair

Has more glamour I declare

Than all the tresses rare

‘tween Killin and Aberfeldy.

Be they lint white, brown or gold,

Be they blacker than the sloe,

They are worth no more to me

Than the melting flake of snow.

Her eyes are like the gleam

O’ the sunlight on the stream;

And the songs the fairies sing

Seem like songs she sings at milking.

But my heart is full of woe,

For last night she bade me go

And the tears begin to flow,

As I sing horee, horo.

Today’s Poetry Friday roundup can be found at Mentor Texts & More.