(WHEN I WAS NO BUT) SWEET SIXTEEN

when I was no but sweet sixteen
with beauty just a-blooming-o
it's little little did I think
at nineteen I'd be greeting-o
          
for the ploughboy lads they're gey braw lads
but they're false and they're deceiving-o
for they'll take your all and they'll gang awa
and leave their lasses grieving-o

o I was fond of company
and gave the ploughboys freedom-o
to kiss and clap me in the dark
when all my friends were sleeping-o
          
but if I had kent that I now ken
and taken my mother's bidding-o
I wouldn't be sitting by our fireside
crying hushabye my bairnie-o

it's hushaba for I'm your ma
but the Lord knows who's your daddy-o
so it's girls take care and you beware
of the ploughboys in the gloaming-o

for the ploughboy lads they're gey braw lads
but they're false and they're deceiving-o
for they'll take your all and they'll gang awa
and leave their lasses grieving-o
       


greeting: weeping
gey: very
braw: handsome
clap: touch
ken: know
bairnie: baby
gloaming: dusk