June Tabor - The Irish Girl lyrics

I walked on a northern shore
Where the sandywort sped on
Before the ocean's blast
The grass ran like lemmings for
The dune's high edge
And I thought it meant like the grass
We bend in the driving gale
And scarcely paused to think what
Makes the wind so strong
Or if there's a refuge from the driver's flag
But then I heard the saddest song
Of the Irish Girl the Irish Girl

Her eyes through a sparkling red
Like raindrops on a laurel
When the moon appears she sang of her sorrow
Through the stinging spread
And through the sweeter brine
The salt of tears
I weep for the lost of a love
Who's gone brooding now and silent
As a standing stone
Two sides of a coin we rolled a battered roll
But in time he chose to leave alone
His Irish Girl his Irish Girl

I touched her and spoke my name
For it seems she didn't know me
For the song she sang she said
Oh I know your face but here's the shame
For though I knew the boy, who knows the man
And I wept who might turn for the fool
Who never saw the joys that
Make a blind man smile
Seeking his fortune while the brightest jewel
Was within his reach all the while
The Irish Girl his Irish Girl