Since I haven’t been able to get back to scanning in my Japan negatives, I thought I’d break things up a bit with a poem that constitutes the lyrics of an Irish children’s song. Over four decades ago I was given an LP of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem at Carnegie Hall, and it became one of my favorites. In fact, I memorized many of the lyrics and sang along — except for the Gaelic, that is. But I think I did a fair job of imitating the sounds of some of the Gaelic without having a clue what I was saying.
They did a long segment of children’s songs, and one of them was called “A Man of Double Deed.” The lyrics appear below:
There was a man of double deed,
Who sowed his garden full of seed.
And when that seed began to grow,
‘Twas like a garden full of snow.
And when that snow began to fall,
Like birds, it was, upon the wall.
And when those birds began to fly,
‘Twas like a shipwreck in the sky.
And when the sky began to crack,
‘Twas like a stick upon my back.
And when my back began to smart,
‘Twas like a penknife in my heart.
And when my heart began to bleed,
Then I was dead and dead indeed.
