Jack Orion Songtext
von Bert Jansch

Jack O′Ryan was as good a fiddler
As ever fiddled on a string
He could make young women mad
To the tune his fiddle sang

He could fiddle the fish out of salt water
Or water from a marble stone
Or the milk out of a maiden's breast
Oh baby, she had none

As he sat a-fiddling in a castle hall
He played them all so sound asleep
Excepting for the young countess
And for love she stayed awake

First he played a slow, slow air
And then he played it brisk and gay
And "Oh dear love, behind her hand
This lady she did say


"When the day has done and the cocks have crowed
And spread their wings so wide
It′s you may come to my bedroom door
To lay down by my side"

He's wrapped his fiddle in a cloth of green
And stole out on his tiptoe
And then he's run off to his own house
As fast as he could go

"When day has done and the cocks have crowed
And spread their wings so wide
It′s I am bidden to that lady′s door
To stretch out by her side"

"Lie down and rest, my good master
And here's a blanket to your head
I′ll awaken you in as good a time
As any cock will in the land"

When Tom took the fiddle into his hand
He fiddled and sang for a full hour
And he played his master fast asleep
And he's off to that lady′s bower


And when he came to that lady's door
He′s twirled so softly at the pin
And the lady true to her promise
Rose up and let him in

Well he didn't take that lady, that lady gay
To bolster nor to bed
But down upon her bower floor
He quickly at her lay

He neither kissed her when he came
Nor yet when from her he did go
And in and out of the window
The moon like a cold glow

"Oh ragged are your stockings, love
And stubble is your cheek and chin
And tangled is that yellow hair
That I saw yesterday"

"The stockings belong to my boy Tom
They were the first that came to my hand
The wind it did tangle my yellowTom took his fiddle into his hand
So saucy there he did sing
And then he's off to his master′s house
As fast as he could run

"Rise up, rise up, my good master
Why do you snore so loud?
There′s not a cock in all this land
But has clapped his wings and crowed"

Jack O'Ryan′s off to that lady's house
As fast as he could run
Saying, "Here am I, indeed and under
Rise up and let me in"

"Surely you didn′t leave behind
A bracelet or a velvet glove
Or is it you've come back again
To taste more of my love?"

Jack O′Ryan swore a bloody oath
By oak and ash and bitter thorn
Saying, "Lady, I've been in your house
Since the day that I was born"

"Oh then it was your young foot page
That has so cruelly beguiled me
And woe that the blood of the ruffian lad
Should spring in my body"

Jack O'Ryan′s run to his own house
Saying, "Tom, me boy, come here to me"
And he′s hung that boy from his own gatepost
As high as a willow tree