Perilous Waters
I wrote Perilous Waters, words and tune, in a very short period of time while I was learning guitar.
A simple song, it tells the tale of an Irish maiden, spurned by her lover and cast into the sea,
where she drowned. She returns as a banesidhe on the night of his death, to sing of his betrayal and her sorrow.
I swore my love by the edge of the ocean
Where rocks tear the waters apart.
He cast me aside for to marry another
A fair face can hide a cruel heart.
Chorus:
I shall mourn, I shall mourn, with a song of devotion
By sorrow and sea, I am drowned
A banesidhe bride of the perilous waters
In the shackles of love - I am bound.
Death's band of iron is the ring 'round my finger
My white gown is made of ship's sails
My hair's wild and torn, with no ribbon to bind it
The sea-foam shall be my wedding-veil.
Chorus
There's a shrine to lost love in the depths of the ocean
Where no trace of light breaks the waves
The sea there is bitter from the salt of long weeping
And the silence is that of the grave.
Chorus
I'll visit my love on the night he is dying
Long before church bells can ring
And as his last breath passes out of his body
I'll stand on his doorstep and sing.
(Chorus x2)