When I go to the market to make a purchase And grasp the earnest money within my hand, The dark slender boy still seeks and searches Till he slips beside me sedate and bland. It's not long after my senseless laughter Will reach the rafters, and I'm left prone When I pay what's owing, even though it's snowing, Seven months without a shirt I am going, my money gone.
An Buachaill Caol Dubh is tall and festive Clever and learned, of comely mien But he has left me and in pain bereft me Of all my fortune, sheep and kine. Were I to travel to Fance, no go Cuan Binn Eadair Or back across to Inishmore Swift as a swallow, my track he would follow, Until on the morrow I would find him there
The fairy Queen of Thomond met us while roaming Near the fray rock, and she told the lad If he would me abandon, that she would grant him A hundred topers to make him glad. The slim boy answered in tones of banter It was ne'er his fancy to lose a friend Over hill and o'er hollow, my track he'd follow A soak so mellow, until the end.