Annotation:Mo rùn geal deleas

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MO RÙN GEAL DELEAS (My Faithful Fair/Fond One). Scottish, Air (3/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Martin): AB (Neil). Neil (1991) records that the Gaelic song was composed by a young farmer from the Isle of Mull, named MacLean (Iain MacGhill-Eathain), who fell in love with one Isobel of Balinby, to whom he dedicated the lyric. Unfortunately Isobel did not at first return his affections, and later, when she was won over, her parents objected to the planned marriage. MacLean "never fully recovered from his disappointment and he became mentally ill through time. It was during a period of confinement that he wrote this and several other compositions." There are several versions of this air extent. . The chorus goes:

Sèist
Mo rùn geal dìleas, dìleas, dìleas
Mo rùn geal dìleas nach till thu nall?
Cha till mi fhèin riut, a ghaoil, cha 'n fhaod mi,
O chòin a ghaoil 's ann tha mise tinn.

My fair and faithful, faithful love
My fair and faithful love would that you returned to me
I will not return to you, love, I cannot
For I am lying here, my love, on my sick-bed

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Martin (Ceol na Fidhle, vol. 3), 1988; p. 24. Moffat (Minstrelsy of the Scottish Highlands), 1907. Neil (The Scots Fiddle), 1991; No. 167, p. 217.

Recorded sources: "The Rankin Family" (1989).

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