strathspey Archive: keel row

Greetings!

I need to teach the song, Keel Row to music teachers at the New England
Conservatory in a couple of weeks. I'm looking for a translation of the
chorus

Weel row the keel row
the keel row, the keel row
weel row the keel row
that my lassie's in.

Any enlightenment on the text of chorus or verses would be most appreciated!

Many thanks,
Susie

"If you can talk, you can sing. If you can walk, you can dance."

Hi

I've usually heard it as "Weel may the keel row"
Weel=well ,"keel" is a metonomy (or maybe synecdochy (please correct any
errors in rhetorical figures(or are those "tropes"?))-it's been a few decades
and my reference works are currently unvailable ;-) ) for boat, row=
procede,travel or be rowed.

so: "may the boat fare well"

Often "laddie" rather than "lassie" in anycase, "beloved"

If I'm wrong someone ,please ,correct me.
Kirk Bachler

Twin Cities Branch,RSCDS

It should be a "synecdochy"

Thanks to Lara Friedman-Shedlov for correction and information!
Kirk BAchler

Twin Cities Branch,RSCDS

Isn't keel the underpart of a ship/boat, which balances it on/in the water?
In that case:

May the boat in which my love is, balance well, so it doesn't capsize and he
drowns.

Pia

----- Original Message -----
From: <SnowshoeTS@aol.com>
To: <strathspey@tm.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de>
Sent: Friday, June 23, 2000 3:44 PM
Subject: Re: keel row

> Hi
>
> I've usually heard it as "Weel may the keel row"
> Weel=well ,"keel" is a metonomy (or maybe synecdochy (please correct any
> errors in rhetorical figures(or are those "tropes"?))-it's been a few
decades
> and my reference works are currently unvailable ;-) ) for boat, row=
> procede,travel or be rowed.
>
> so: "may the boat fare well"
>
> Often "laddie" rather than "lassie" in anycase, "beloved"
>
> If I'm wrong someone ,please ,correct me.
> Kirk Bachler
>
> Twin Cities Branch,RSCDS
>
> --
> SnowshoeTS@aol.com
>
>

Susie Petrov wrote:
>
> Greetings!
>
> I need to teach the song, Keel Row to music teachers at the New England
> Conservatory in a couple of weeks. I'm looking for a translation of the
> chorus
>
> Weel row the keel row
> the keel row, the keel row
> weel row the keel row
> that my lassie's in.
>
> Any enlightenment on the text of chorus or verses would be most appreciated!
>
> Many thanks,
> Susie
>
> "If you can talk, you can sing. If you can walk, you can dance."
>
> --
> Susie Petrov <spetrov@shore.net>
Susie,
You can find the words at
http://www.ingeb.org/songs/asicathr.html

As a child in Scotland we always pronounced "row" as in "how".
I can't find the word "leish" in any dictionary. If any Geordies see
this maybe they can translate it.
James