Turn Ye To Me

©Words by John Wilson (Christopher North) 1785-1854

        A beautiful song I learned as a child, but kept forgetting how beautiful it was, so I must thank Lainie Snow Porter and Dr. Sandy Ives for giving it back to me. The time you think of this one is when you're out off the islands on a grey winter afternoon, and it is starting to snow. You look up from the chart and there's a grey old ledge sneaking by in the gloom, with a gull standing on it. He's not doing anything, just staring off at nothing, and the cold swell sliding over his toes. You know that if he doesn't feel like going all the way home before dark it won't matter much to him, he can just go off and set down on a wave somewhere, comb a little· more oil into his feathers, squat his head down and go to sleep. And that wave could be anywhere in the world. Well, it won't do for dark to catch you out there, so you roll her off for home and your warm bedroom and pretty curtained windows - but somehow the gull has taken a bit of the reality off it for you.

The stars are shining cheerily, cheerily;
Horo, Mhairi-Dhu: turn ye to me.
The seabird is crying wearily, wearily;
Horo, Mhairi-Dhu: turn ye to me.

Cold are the stormwinds that ruffle his breast,
But warm are the downy plumes lining his nest.
Cold blows the storm there, soft falls the snow there;
Horo, Mhairi-Dhu: turn ye to me.

The waves are driving wearily, wearily;
Horo, Mhairi-Dhu, turn ye to me.
The seabird is crying drearily, drearily;
Horo, Mhairi-Dhu: turn ye to me.

Hushed be thy moaning, lone bird of the sea:
Thy home on the rock is a shelter to thee.
Thy home is the angry wave, mine but the lonely grave;
Horo, Mhairi-Dhu: turn ye to me.

Turn Ye To Me is recorded on the CD Seal Djiril's Hymn