The Red-Haired Man's Wife

'Tis what they say,
Thy little heel fits in a shoe.
'Tis what they say,
Thousand loves that you leave me to rue;
That the tailor went the way
That the wife of the Red man knew.

Nine months did I spend
In a prison closed tightly and bound;
Bolts on my smalls
And a thousand locks frowning around;
But o'er the tide
I would leap with the leap of a swan,
Could I once set my side
By the bride of the Red-haired man.

I thought, O my life,
That one house between us would be;
And I thought I would find
You once coaxing my child on your knee;
But now the curse of the High One
On him let it be,
And on all the band of the liars
Who put silence between you and me.

There grows a tree in the garden
With blossoms that tremble and shake,
I lay my hand on its bark
And I feel that my heart must break.
On one wish alone
My soul through the long months ran,
One little kiss
From the wife of the Red-haired man.

But the Day of Doom shall come
And hills and harbours be rent;
A mist shall fall on the sun
From the dark clouds heavily sent;
The sea shall be dry,
And earth under mourning and ban;
then loud shall he cry
For the wife of the Red-haired man.