Far off in sunlit places,
Sad are the Scottish faces,
Yearning to feel the Kiss
Of sweet Scottish rain.
Sigh. I have to make do with Seattle, until I can return again.
I'm told that the sad song "Chi Mi Na Morbheanna" ("I See the Great Mountains"), of a longing to return home, was written by an emigre during the Clearances. When his boat, full of displaced Scots, neared Nova Scotia, the mountains reminded them so much of home they were all reduced to tears.
I live at the foot of a mountain someone named Ben Lomond because it reminded him of home...
And yet, and yet, of the Celtic races, the Scots and the Irish have managed to spread their seed far and wide around the world...
My family's an example of that...I have more Scots names in my family lines than English...some lowland, some perhaps highland, and one probably from the Orkneys...
Here's another homesick one...
Far frae my hame I wander, but still my thoughts return
To my ain folk ower yonder, in the shieling by the burn.
I see the cosy ingle, and the mist abune the brae:
And joy and sadness mingle, as I list some auld-warld lay.
And it's oh! but I'm longing for my ain folk,
Tho' they be but lowly, puir and plain folk:
I am far beyond the sea, but my heart will ever be
At home in dear auld Scotland, wi' my ain folk.
O' their absent ane they're telling
The auld folk by the fire:
And I mark the swift tears welling
As the ruddy flame leaps high'r.
How the mither wad caress me were I but by her side:
Now she prays that Heav'n will bless me,
Tho' the stormy seas divide.
And it's oh! but I'm longing for my ain folk,
Tho' they be but lowly, puir and plain folk:
I am far beyond the sea, but my heart will ever be
At home in dear auld Scotland, wi' my ain folk.