Translations by Dean Wilson
I'm a broken-hearted keelman
An I'm o'er head in love
Wi' a young lass from Gateshead
An I call her me dove.
Her name's Cushie Butterfield
An she sells yella clay
An her cousin's a muckman
An they call him Tom Gray.
(chorus)
She's a big lass She's a bonny lass An she
likes her beer
An I call her Cushie Butterfield
An I wish she was here.
Her eyes is like two holes In a blanket pulled through
An her breath in the mornin
Would scare a young coo.
And when I hear her shoutin
'Will you buy ony clay?
Like a candyman's trumpet
It steals me young heart away.
(chorus)
Ye'll oft see her doon at Sandgate When the fresh herring
comes in She's like a bagful o sawdust
Tied round with string
She wears big galoshes
And her stockings was once white
An her bedgown it's lilac
An her hat's nivva straight.
(chorus)
When I axed her to marry us
She started to laugh
"Noo, Nyen o' yer monkey tricks
For Aa like nee sic chaff"
Then she started abubblin'
An roared like a bull
An the cheps on the Keel sez
Aa's nowt but a fyeul
(chorus)
She sez "The chep that gets us
He'll heh te work ivvery day
An when he comes hyem at neet He'll need to gan an seek
clay.
An when he awa' seekin it
Aall myek baals an sing
O weel may the keel row
That my laddie's in."
(chorus)
END
