Òran Ailein / Leaving Strathconon

ÒRAN AILEIN

Teine oidhche geamhradh
Nar sheasamh air an làr
Sheinn sinn òran Ailein
Sèist is rann
'S an trèana ruith cho taibhseil
Mar chuimhne tron a' ghleann
'S iomadh loit nach tig slàn

LEAVING STRATHCONON

We're the emigrant ones,
Not the last in the line
You're your father's son,
And I am mine
And all of our northwords
Turn distant and small
In the end they mean nothing,
No, nothing at all.

Right here's the river's source,
And it flows out to the world
And the heart of Caledonia
Is drowning in the flood
Was there hunger in our striving?
Did the light shine in our dark?
Was everything we ever needed
Always right here from the start?

Please believe me
Something in me died
Leaving Strathconon
And your mountains behind
Please believe me
Something in me died
Leaving Strathconon
And your father's home behind.

We stood on a hundred gangways,
That's the way it's always been.
I walked out beyond Calvary
With all my kith and kin
In the war of the world
We conquer and roam
Lie the wounds that stay bleeding
And raw in the soul.

Please believe me
Something in me died
Leaving Strathconon
And your mountains behind
Please believe me
Something in me died
Leaving Strathconon
And your father's home behind.

After the raging flame,
The embers burn slow
We're leaving, leaving, leaving,
Till there's nowhere left to go
The seas, the slums, the battlefields,
The shipyards, the tides,
The straths, the glens, the drove roads,
All the prairies and the mines.

It's a still, autumn morning,
And it covers Loch Meig
And all the trees across the valley
In a blaze of dying green
I've seen too many tail-lights,
Didn't need to say goodbye
We're just souls across a shrinking world
In a distant starlit night.

Please believe me
Something in me died
Leaving Strathconon
And your mountains behind
Please believe me
Something in me died
Leaving Strathconon
And your father's home behind.