Oran Ailein (Leaving Strathconon)

Teine oidhche geamhradh

'Nar sheasamh air an lar

Sheinn sinn oran Ailein

Seist is rann

'S an treana ruith cho taibhseil

Mar cuimhne tron ghleann

'S iomadh loit nach tig slan

We're the emigrant ones

Not the last in the line

You're your father's son

And I am mine

And all of our northwords

Turn distant and small

In the end they mean nothing

No, nothing at all

Right here's the river's source

And it flows out to the world

And the heart of Caledonia

Is drowning in its flood

Was there hunger (hunger) in our striving (striving)

Did the light shine in our dark

Was everything we ever needed

Always right here from the start

Please believe me

Something in me died

Leaving Strathconon

And your mountains behind

We stood on a hundred gangways

That's the way it's always been

I walked out beyond Calvary

With all my kith and kin (With all my kith and kin)

In the war of the worlds (War of the worlds)

We conquer and roam

Lie the wounds that stay bleeding (Stay bleeding)

And raw in the soul

Please believe me

Something in me died

Leaving Strathconon

And your mountains behind

Oh, please believe me

Something in me died

Leaving Strathconon

And your mountains behind

After the raging flame

The embers burn slow

We're leaving, leaving, leaving

'Til there's nowhere left to go (There's nowhere left to go)

The seas, the slums, the battlefields

The shipyards, the tides

The straths, the glens, the drove roads

All the prairies and the mines

It's a still autumn morning

And it covers Loch Meig

And all the trees across the valley

In a blaze of dying green

We've seen too many tail-lights

Didn't need to say goodbye (Didn't need to say goodbye)

We're just souls across a shrinking world

In a distant starlit night

Please believe me

Something in me died

Leaving Strathconon

And your mountains behind

Oh, please believe me

Something in me died

Leaving Strathconon

And your father's home behind

---

By the fire of a winter's night

Standing around the floor

We sang Alan's song

Verse and chorus

And the train ran so ghostly

Like a memory, through the glen

There are many wounds that do not heal