From: dsgood[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]visi.com (Daniel Goodman)

Newsgroups: alt.music.filk,soc.history.what-if

Subject: new -- alternate world filk

Date: 19 Oct 1996 05:39:25 GMT



Note: This is not a song _about_ alternate history, but a song

_from_ an alternate history; one whose brand of English is at least a

bit different from ours, and one in which different songs survived in

folk tradition.



I Have a Young Sister



I have a young sister

Who lives beyond the sea.

Many a fine present

She has given me.



She gave me the cherry

Without a stone.

She gave me the dove

Without a bone.

She gave me the briar

Without a rind.

She bade me love my true love

Without longing.



How can the cherry

Grow without a stone?

How can the dove

Fly without a bone?

How can the briar

Grow without a rind?

How can a maid love

Without longing.



When the cherry was a flower,

Then had it no stone.

When the dove was an ey,

Then had it no bone.

When the briar was unbred,

Then had it no rind.

When a maid has what she loves,

She has no longing.



Tune? "I Gave my Love a Cherry" works.



Note -- the e in dove is pronounced; not common in that brand of

English, but just usual enough to be acceptable. "Stone" and "bone"

are pronounced closer to "stane" and "bane".





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