For Jane Haining. Originally from Dunscore in South West Scotland, Jane worked in a Paisley thread mill before finding her “life’s work”, as she described it, as a missionary to a Budapest orphanage during the 1930s. During the Nazi occupation, she chose to remain in Hungary and was later arrested on charge of espionage for crimes that included weeping whilst she sewed the mandatory Star of David onto the children’s clothes. She was transported to Auschwitz, where she died in 1944 at the age of 47. In 1997, Jane was recognised as one of the “Righteous Among The Nations” for her services to the Jewish people. With thanks to Billy Kay for telling me to find out more.
lyrics
Baleerie Baloo
I know the warp of a thread
Of fibres and filaments silver and red
But these golden stars
Are blood on my hands
Baleerie, baleerie baloo
I cradled you all in the sun
I cradle you still though the day is done
And these golden stars
Swallow the light
Baleerie, baleerie baloo
Tomorrow is sealed with a sigh
And I am betrayed by the tear in my eye
And these golden stars
Have fallen to earth
Baleerie, baleerie baloo
So hush ma wee lammie don’t weep
A far gentler hand will soon lull you to sleep
And those golden stars will shine for you and I
Baleerie, baleerie baloo
credits
from SCRIBBLED IN CHALK,
released February 18, 2009
Words and Music: Karine Polwart (Bay Songs Ltd)
supported by 12 fans who also own “Baleerie Baloo”
Love the complexity of this track and the rising and falling of the violins, and the texture. Makes me want to dance.
Thank you so much for this album. I really love it, and find it really inspiring my own work on the Witchcraft Trials ❤️ tararosehip
supported by 11 fans who also own “Baleerie Baloo”
Keening, yearning, captivating and lovely collection of songs, the sense of close performance all the more remarkable when you learn it was made during Covid lockdown in 2020. The ballads and poems set to music on this album might be hundreds of years old, and while they do have an air of immortal, ancient tradition about them, they sound utterly current. Badzie
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