Jim Reid: Up the Noran Water

Sung by Jim Reid on Jim Reid: I Saw the Wild Geese Flee
Words and music by Jim Reid/Springthyme Music © 1984

This poem, set to music by Jim, comes from the pen of the late Helen Cruickshank who published the piece under the title Shy Geordie. The Noran Water flows into the South Esk near Brechin.

Up the Noran Water
In by Inglismaddy,
Annie's got a bairnie
That hasna got a daddy.
Some think it's Tammas's
An some think it's Chay's;
An naebody expectit it,
Wi Annie's quiet ways.

Up the Noran Water
The bonnie little mannie
Is dandlit and cuddled close
By Inglismaddy's Annie.
Wha the bairnie's faither is
The lassie never says;
But some think it's Tammas's,
And ithers think it's Chay's.

Up the Noran Water
The country folk are kind:
And wha the bairnie's faither is
They dinna muckle mind.
But oh! the bairn at Annie's breist,
The love in Annie's ee
Wad mak me wish wi aa ma micht
That the lucky lad wis me!

And oh! the bairn at Annie's breist,
The love in Annie's ee
Wad mak me wish wi aa ma micht
That the lucky lad wis me!