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Arrane Ny Niee / The Washing Song
[ Roud - ; trad.]
Eliza Carthy sang the Washing Song on the Imagined Village's 2012 album, Bending the Dark.
Laura Hockenhull sang The Washing Song on the 2013 anthology of music at work in Britain, Rhythms of Labour. Marek Korcvynski et al noted:
Coming from the Isle of Man, this song was sung in Manx Gaelic with the title Arrane Ny Niee. According to James Kelly of Ballachrink, from whom it was collected by Mona Douglas in the early 20th century, the song was sung by women during the course of washing their babies. There are three clear dimensions of emotion expressed in the song. The tender care with which women handle their young offspring is suggested in details about washing first their hands, and then their feet, and in expressions overflowing with the delight of maternal love—‘O my heart, my joy’. This is accompanied with admiring description of those they tend, their bodies fair and smooth, their hair a-curling, all of which is summed up in the line: ‘Each day puts beauty on you’. Along with these aspects of the song is the recurrent sense of time moving on, as each day passes from dawn to twilight, and of their babies continually growing and changing: ‘Each day puts strength upon you’. The song is a celebration of the abundance of maternal love coupled with expressions of hope for each ‘darling sweet’ to whom it is sung—hope that they continue to grow over time in both beauty and strength.
These three emotional dimensions in this song of a mother’s daily work and care for her child are sensitively brought out in this new recording by Laura Hockenhull, sung in the translated version of the song available in Peter Kennedy’s major collection of traditional song from Britain and Ireland [pp. 184-5]. We had the honour of introducing this song to Eliza Carthy, when she played a concert linked to our singing at work research in 2010. She takes the lead on The Imagined Village’s version of the song on their 2012 album, Bending the Dark.
Lyrics
Arrane Ny Niee | Laura Hockenhull sings The Washing Song |
---|---|
Bee dty host, my villish |
Hush-a-bye, my darling |
Chooid nagh gaase ’sy voghrey |
At morn that which grows not |
Acknowledgements
Lyrics copied from Peter Kenendy: Folk Songs of Britain and Ireland, pp. 184-5.