fairy jacket

[asakiyume]

I found a fairy jacket, hanging on a bush, and thought of "Scarborough Fair."



Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Sewn without seams or fine needlework,
If she would be a true love of mine.

Tell her to wash it in yonder well,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Where never spring water or rain ever fell,
And she shall be a true lover of mine.

Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Which never bore blossom since Adam was born,
Then she shall be a true lover of mine.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I think you're right about mondegreens being less entrenched in our heads now that we can correct them more easily. Though, I do think we still can sometimes prefer the lyrics as we originally heard them--I prefer "You're gonna to make mistakes, you know" to "You're gonna make mistakes; you're young" in Metric's song "Gimme Sympathy" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=955p21oIgYw)--it makes it more universal (I'm not young, but I'm sure as hell still gonna make mistakes), and I prefer "orchards of hell," which is a striking image, over "archers of hell" in the Decemberists' "This Is Why We Fight." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rFfRo0SRAg)

I never knew what candlewick fabric looked like, but when I searched for an image, I saw that my grandmother had a candlewick bedspread too!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Ah, candlewick was commonplace in my childhood. I never did see an actual candlewick shirt, but it was easy to imagine, especially with those hippy Simon/Garfunkel types. (What I am finding marginally interesting now is that I definitely knew the song pre-S&G, not as a recorded song but as a song that we sang, almost certainly from songsheets; but either I just never remembered that verse or else the S&G version just overwrote the original lyric with what-I-heard. Or else in fact I never saw it written down and always misheard it from the get-go. Or my big sister misheard it and taught it to me, that's always possible. Or...)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I heard the song first from Simon & Garfunkel and untangled the actual Scarborough Fair lyrics later, when I got all crazily into Celtic fairy lore.

I thought they were saying "camberick"--when I found out the word was "cambric" I lost some gruntle. They were definitely making it three syllables.

I also thought they said "Tell her to leave it in a sickle-bells ablazing in scarlet gartalion."

I recognized that I was hearing a smooshing of songs, but I still imagined a bush with bells in the shape of sickles, and scarlet leaves, all the while wondering what, exactly, gartalion was.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Mmm, gartalion. Under the heraldic spelling - Gartalyan - it is the emblem of the House of the Fallen Heart. Also, of course, the seed-heads yield an oil that makes one part in five of the Perfume of All Desire. Lovesick swains wear its blossoms secretly in pouches next their heart on May Day and for a sennight thereafter: not that this will in any way influence their luck in love, it's just a helpless gesture, a private and intimate confession.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

♥ ♥ ♥

This is now my truth forever.