From the recording Bleak is the Pampa
This is the second single from my forthcoming album "The Trackless Wild, Irish Song of the Pampa." The lyrics were written by an exiled Irishman in Buenos Aires in 1873. The songs words were published in the corner of a random page of a provincial newspaper in Buenos Aires and then soon forgotten. Unlike many of the other Irish songs scattered among the pages of "El Monitor de la Campaña," Bleak is the Pampa had no obvious melody. That is, the music itself is newly composed. There are illusions to the island of Hy Brasil in its verses, "had he ne'er quitted his own island dwelling, in search of a phantom in lands far away."
In 2022 I was approached after a concert at the Universidad del Salvador by Miguel Guarrnochea. Migue had just heard me sing another song from his home town "The Trackless Wild."In the following weeks he furnished me with all the digital archives of the newspaper "El Monitor de la Campaña." Here began a year and a half of going through those pages, lifting out gems like this song.
Lyrics
Bleak is the Pampa
Oh bleak is the pampa when deserted and forlorn
O'er its thorn bosom the wanderer goes,
When the smiles he late loved as the sun beams of morn
Are the shadows that deepen the depth of his woes.
Oh! had he ne'er quitted his own island dwelling,
In search of a phantom in lands far away,
He'd ne'er have to grieve at his own bitter telling,
He exchanged the truest love for the friends of a day.
But such is life's onward course varying ever
Though todays sun be clouded tomorrow’s shall shine;
And hearts that look upward from hope cannot sever,
For theirs is the goal at which all is divine.
El Monitor de La Campaña 1873 (numero 88)