Lyrics The Wind That Shakes the Barley - Loreena McKennitt

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

I sat within a valley green
I sat there with my true love
My heart strove to choose between
The old love and the new love
The old for her, the new that made
Me think on Ireland dearly
While soft the wind blew down the glade
And shook the golden barley
'Twas hard the woeful words to frame
To break the ties that bound us
But harder still to bear the shame
Of foreign chains around us
And so I said, «The mountain glen
I’ll seek at morning early
And join the brave United Men
While soft winds shook the barley»
'Twas sad I kissed away her tears
Her arms around me clinging
When to my ears the fateful shot
Came out the wildwood ringing
The bullet pierced my true love’s breast
In life’s young spring so early
And all upon my breast she died
While soft winds shook the barley
I bore her to some mountain stream
And many’s the summer blossom
I placed with branches soft and green
About her gore-stained bosom
I wept and kissed her clay-cold corpse
Then rushed o’er vale and valley
My vengeance on the foe to wreak
While soft winds shook the barley
'Twas blood for blood without remorse
I took at Oulart Hollow
I placed my true love’s clay-cold corpse
Where I full soon may follow
Around her grave I wandered drear
Noon, night and morning early
With aching heart when e’er I hear
The wind that shakes the barley