> Waterson:Carthy > Songs > The Slave's Lament / Farewell to a Dark Haired Friend

The Slave's Lament / Farewell to a Dark Haired Friend

[Robert Burns arr. Eliza Carthy / Eliza Carthy]

Eliza Carthy sang The Slave's Lament in 1994 on Waterson:Carthy's eponymous debut album Waterson:Carthy. Martin Carthy commented in the sleeve notes:

I must say that when I heard The Slave's Lament for the first time and was told that it was Robert Burns song I did think, “Oh yeah?” and was quite convinced that it was one of his “improvements”. However, Hamish Henderson of the School of Scottish Studies is adamant that it is, in fact, all Burns's work, and he knows, so there it is. I did hear an America singer called Mary Eagle sing a traditional American song which had fairly solid echoes of it, but all that tells you is how close Burns remained to the music and poetry he grew up with. It's an astonishing song, I think, the kind that can imprint itself on the brain on one hearing, which was what happened to me when I heard Jean Redpath sing it on record a few years ago. I sang it to Eliza who immediately got our collected Burns out, learned it and did this arrangement. Nice to know that people in the late 18th / early 19th centuries found slavery loathsome, and not to have to deal with those 'they were men of their time' thoughts for once. Eliza wrote Farewell to a Dark Haired Friend.

Lyrics

Eliza Carthy sang The Slave's Lament

It was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthral,
For the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O.
Torn from that lovely shore, I must never see it more;
And alas! I am weary, weary O.

All on that charming coast is no bitter snow and frost,
Like the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O:
Their streams for ever flow, and their flowers for ever blow,
And alas! I am weary, weary O.

The burden I must bear, while the cruel scourge I fear,
In the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O;
And I think on friends most dear, with the bitter, bitter tear,
And alas! I am weary, weary O.