Oran Ailein
Alan's Song
Teine oidhche geamhradh
'Nar sheasamh air an lar
Sheinn sinn oran Ailein
Seist is rann
'S an treana ruith cho taibhseil
Mar cuimhne tron ghleann
'S iomadh loit nach tig slan
--oOo--
By the fire of a winter's night
Standing around the floor
We sang Alan's song
Verse and chorus
And the train ran so ghostly
Like a memory, through the glen
There are many wounds that do not heal
Leaving Strathconon
We're the emigrant ones, not the last in the line
You're your father's son, and I am mine
And all of our northwords turn distant and small
In the end they mean nothing, no- nothing at all
Right here's the river's source, and it flows out to the world
And the heart of Caledonia is drowning in its flood
Was there hunger in our striving, did the light shine in our dark
Was everything we ever needed always right here from the start
(Chorus)
Please believe me
Something in me died
Leaving Strathconon
And your mountains behind
Please believe me
Something in me died
Leaving Strathconon
And your father's home behind
We stood on a hundred gangways, that's the way it's always been
I walked out beyond Calvary with all my kith and kin
In the war of the worlds we conquer and roam
Lie the wounds that stay bleeding and raw in the soul
(Chorus)
After the raging flame, the embers burn slow
We're leaving, leaving, leaving, 'til there's nowhere left to go
The seas, the slums, the battlefields, the shipyards, the tides
The straths, the glens, the drove roads, all the prairies and the mines
It's a still, autumn morning, and it covers Loch Meig
And all the trees across the valley in a blaze of dying green
I've seen too many tail-lights, didn't need to say goodbye
We're just souls across a shrinking world in a distant starlit night
(Chorus)