| Eithne Ní Bhraonáin (Enya) |
| Nicky Ryan |
| Traditional, 3rd verse Doris Plenn |
| Aigle Studios |
| English |
| 4:32 (3:20) |
| © 1991 Warner Music Intl. |
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The video for this song on the The Video Collection
runs only 3:20, by leaving out the middle part of the lyrics. |
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My life goes on in endless song
above earth's lamentations,
I hear the real, though far-off hymn
that hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear it's music ringing,
It sounds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing?
While though the tempest loudly roars,
I hear the truth, it liveth.
And though the darkness 'round me close,
songs in the night it giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm,
while to that rock I'm clinging.
Since love is lord of heaven and earth
how can I keep from singing?
When tyrants tremble in their fear
and hear their death knell ringing,
when friends rejoice both far and near
how can I keep from singing?
In prison cell and dungeon vile
our thoughts to them are winging,
when friends by shame are undefiled
how can I keep from singing? |
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(“Traditional”, American)
Original music: Rev. Robert Lowry (1826-1899)
Original words: Anne Bartlett Warner, ca. 1850
Additional third verse: Doris Plenn, 1956
Arranged by Pete Seeger (1919- )
First published by Sanga Music, Inc.
Enya and her record company were sued for copyright infringement by Sanga Music, Inc. for recording this “traditional” number because she had mistakenly credited this track as a “traditional Shaker
hymn,” thus assumed it as public domain. The third verse was, in fact, penned by Doris Plenn in 1956, who learned it from her grandmother, who claimed it had been written in the early days of the
Quaker church. Folk legend Pete Seeger helped make the song fairly well-known in the 1950s by publishing it with Plenn’s additional third verse in his folk music magazine Sing Out! (Vol.
7, No 1. 1957), recording it, and mistakenly credited it as a “traditional Quaker hymn” without copyrighting Plenn’s verse, thus presenting the entire song as “public domain.” It was again
published by Sanga Music, Inc. in 1964. Its origin and controversial legal status was later clarified and settled in court in 1992: it was neither a traditional Shaker nor Quaker hymn—it’s actually
a Sunday School song written by Rev. Robert Lowry that was published in a songbook he edited titled Bright Jewels for the Sunday School (New York: Bigelow & Main, 1869). Because Seeger presented
the new verse as being public domain, the court decided that Plenn had lost her rights and Enya could use the verse without paying royalties.
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