My dashing darling is my hero
He's my Caesar, a dashing darling,
I've got no rest and no pleasure
Since my dashing darling went to a distant land.
I'm incessantly sorrowing each day,
Lamenting sorely and showing signs of tears
As the lively lad has been separated from me
And no news from him is told, my sadness.
My dashing darling is my hero
He's my Caesar, a dashing darling,
I've got no rest and no pleasure
Since my dashing darling went to a distant land.
My dashing darling is my hero
He's my Caesar, a dashing darling,
I've got no rest and no pleasure
Since my dashing darling went to a distant land.
Let a story be sung on tuneful harps
and let lots of quarts be filled on the table
with high spirits faultless and unclouded
to find life and good health for my lion1
My dashing darling is my hero
He's my Caesar, a dashing darling,
I've got no rest and no pleasure
Since my dashing darling went to a distant land. (x3)
1. "leon" is perhaps ambiguous - it can mean either "lion" or "wound/grief/sorrow/pain". I don't think the idea here is that the Goddess "Eire" (who was the speaker in the original poem on which this song was based) is asking for relief from her sorrow, I think she's asking for her lion, her dashing darling, to come back to her and carry on with his battle to free the gaels from King George in particular and the English in general, so I've picked "lion" rather than "wound" or "grief".