She Moves Through the Fair - Chords, Lyrics and Origins

Origins

As with many folk songs, several sets of slightly different lyrics exist for She Moves Through the Fair.  It has been recorded by Fairport Convention, Anne Briggs, John Martyn, Sinéad O'Connor and others.  However, most of the recorded versions miss out this verse:

"The people were saying no two were e'er wed,
But one has a sorrow that never was said,
And I smiled as she passed with her goods and her gear,
And that was the last that I saw of my dear."

The song is probably Irish, and the words most commonly sung were 'reworked', though not originally authored, by Padraic Colum.

The "lack of kind" in the first verse may refer to a lack of relatives, or possibly to a lack of 'kine' (meaning livestock).

Chords

C                        D                  C                  D
My young love said to me "My mother won't mind

        C                          D                      C                   D               
And my father won't slight you for your lack of kind"

        C                             D                C            D
And she laid her hand on me and this she did say

                   Am       D                C                           D
"Oh, it will not be long, love, till our wedding-day"



               C                D                      C          D
And she went away from me and moved through the fair

        C             D                              C                        D    
And fondly I watched her move here and move there

        C                       D                     C      D
And then she went onward, just one star awake

               Am               D            C                           D
Like the swan in the evening moves over the lake



C                        D                  C                      D
Last night she came to me, my dead love came in

        C             D                      C                      D    
So softly she came that her feet made no din

               C                     D                 C                  D
And she laid her hand on me and this she did say

         Am                 D                C                           D
"Oh, it will not be long, love, till our wedding-day"

Lyrics

My young love said to me "My mother won't mind
And my father won't slight you for your lack of kind"
And she laid her hand on me and this she did say
"Oh, it will not be long, love, till our wedding-day"

And she went away from me and moved through the fair
And fondly I watched her move here and move there
And then she went onward, just one star awake
Like the swan in the evening moves over the lake

Last night she came to me, my dead love came in
So softly she came that her feet made no din
And she laid her hand on me and this she did say
"Oh, it will not be long, love, till our wedding-day"