I remember once i was in Brunei, stuck in a middle of a very tough situation. I am made to lead a project that I do not have the capability to handle. All alone in the foreign land, my only comfort is in the song collections and the sermons collections i have in one of my hard disk, that was the first time I heard the song “Down by the Salley Gardens”.

This is a traditional Irish song, and the first time i heard it, it was sung by a very nice Japanese Jazz singer Emi Fujita in her Camomile album. That time i was rushing a proposal document and I am stressed out, the nice melody kind of calmed me down then. So I would like to share this song with all of you.

Did a bit of wiki onto the song and here are some extract of it in wikipedia

Down By The Salley Gardens (Irish: Gort na Saileán) is a traditional Irish song. Sometimes known as “An Traigh Mughdhorna”, “The Maids of Mourne Shore” and “The Mourne Shore”, it can be sung in either English or Irish.

It is sometimes listed as a poem by William Butler Yeats, after the words were included in a book of his poems, The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems, published in 1889. However, the case is that Yeats published the poem as a tribute to oral tradition; it was based on a fragment of a song he recalled hearing an old Irish woman sing. Yeats’ noted that This is an attempt to reconstruct an old song from three lines imperfectly remembered by an old peasant woman in the village of Ballysodare, Sligo, who often sings them to herself. The verse was subsequently set to music by Herbert Hughes to the air The Maids of the Mourne Shore in 1909.

“Salley” is an anglicisation of the Irish saileach, meaning willow, i.e., a tree of the genus Salix. Willows are known as “salleys”, “sallies” or “salley trees” in parts of Ireland.

Down by the Salley Gardens

Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;
She passed by the salley gardens on her little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.

In a field by the river my love and I did stand,
And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.
She bid me take life easy, as the grass grow on the weirs;
But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.

Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;
She passed by the salley gardens on her little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.

Gort na Saileán (For any friends who knows Irish)  

Is thíos i nGort na Saileán
sea casadh dom mo rún
Ba luath a cos ar féar ann
is ba luaineach a leagan siúil
Sé dúirt sí liom bheith suaimhneach
mar a fhásann duilliúr is bláth
Ach bhí mise óg is uaibhreach
is níor éist mé le guth mo ghrá.

Is thíos cois abhann go déanamh
sea sheas mé le mo ghrá
Gualainn ar ghualainn le chéile
is leag sí orm lámh
Sé dúirt sí liom bheith suaimhneach
mar a fhásann féar aníos
Ach bhí mise óg is uaibhreach
‘stá na deora anois mo chloí

Is thíos i nGort na Saileán
sea casadh dom mo rún…

You can sing along by using this Youtube version (this is sung by Emi Fujita for your information