Songs of Jamaica (1912)
Ribber Come-Do’n
[Footnote on title: “Ribber Come-Do’n”[1]]
From de top o' Clarendon hill
Chock down to Clarendon plain
De ribber is rushin' an' tearin'
'Count o' de showers o' rain.
An' a mudder, anxious an' sad,
Two whole days be'n gone away,
A-buyin' fresh fish fe tu'n han'[2]
Slap do'n at Old Harbour Bay.
But de dark ribber kept her back,
Dat night she couldn' get home,
While a six-week-old baby wailed,
An' wailed for a mudder to come.
An' a fader too was away
'Cross de Minha[3] wukin' him groun',[4]
So him couldn' get home dat night
Sake o' de ribber come-do'n.
Dere were four udder little ones
'Sides de babe of six weeks old,
An' dey cried an' looked to no use,[5]
An' oh dey were hungry an' cold!
So de lee fourteen-year-old gal,
De eldest one o' de lot,
Was sad as she knelt by the babe
An' byaed[6] her on de cot.
"Bya, bya, me baby,
Baby want go sleepy."
She look 'pan de Manchinic[7] tree,
Not a piece of mancha fe eat;
De Jack-fruit dem bear well anuff,
But dere wasn't one o' dem fit.[8]
Nor puppa nor mumma could come,
Aldough it be'n now nightfall;
De rain pour do'n an' de wind blow,
An' de picknanies dem still bawl.
So de poo' Milly 'tarted out
To whe' a kin' neighbour lib,
Fe see ef a bite o ' nenyam[9]
Dem couldn' p'raps manage fe gib.
"Ebenin', cousin Anna,
Me deh beg you couple banna,[10]
For dem tarra one[11] is berry hungry home;
We puppa ober May,[12] ma,
We mumma gone a Bay, ma,
An' we caan' tell warra' time dem gwin' go come."
The kind district mother thought
Of her own boy far away,
An' wondered much how he fared
In a foreign land that day.
She opened de cupboard door
An' took from it warra be'n sabe,
A few bits o' yam an' lee meal,
An' a pint o' milk fe de babe.
De parents dat night couldn' come,
De howlin' wind didn' lull,
But de picknanies went to bed
Wid a nuff nuff bellyful.
- The river in flood ↵
- To peddle ↵
- The Rio Minho: pronounce 'miner' ↵
- Cultivating his ground or provision field ↵
- In vain ↵
- A verb formed from hushaby ↵
- Corruption of 'Martinique,' the best variety of banana in Jamaica ↵
- Ripe ↵
- Food ↵
- I am begging a few bananas of you ↵
- Those other ones, i.e., the little children at home ↵
- Over at Mayfield ↵