The Same Wind Blows On Me

by Margot Cook

The wind that sweeps the desert sand
The wind that storms the sea
The wind that whispers roon my love
The same wind blaws on me

My love has traivelled far and lang
Oh how can he leave me?
I'm broken herted here my lane
And weary him tae see

And I miss him here beside me
I miss his dark, dark ee
Withoot his touch, withoot his love
I doot I'm like tae dee

In the cauld oor o waukrife nicht
When the sky is clear and free
The moon and stars that shine on him
Are shinin doon on me

Words:
Like: likely
My lane: by myself
Oor: hour
Waukrife: wakeful

After Sangschule learned this song, we had a visit from the writer herself, who had recently started writing and was finding it a thrill to hear other people sing her words. Margot told us that her husband did in fact have only one eye, and that he liked to make her laugh using his glass eye, by having it look round the door before he came in himself. But the mood of the song is serious and passionately sad.

It appears on the CD Between the Tay and the Forth, part of a project called Celebrating Fife in Song. The CD notes say “Margot is an enthusiast and committed supporter of traditional song, from the East Neuk. This song, the first she ever wrote, was made for a St Andrew’s course on Scots song, and is about the loss of her husband. The song expresses sentiments shared by many in the East Neuk fishing villages of Fife.”

The CD notes also say the song has been amongst “prizewinners in the Jack Stewart Memorial Songwriting competition”.