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You asked me to tell you a story,
A story of days that are gone;
When life was as gay as a flower,
One kissed by the sunbeams of dawn.
I once loved a beautiful lady,
As gay as the blue sky above;
Each night as we rambled together,
The moon seemed to shine on our love.
We promised that we would be faithful,
That nothing would get us apart;
It was little we thought on the future,
Leaving only a sad broken heart.
One night as we rambled together,
We quarrelled as sweethearts might do;
I learnt what it was to be jealous,
And l told her her love was untrue.
We kissed, we shook hands, and we parted,
I went back to make her my bride;
It was there in the door stood her father,
He told me my sweetheart had died.
I went in, l knelt down beside her,
As she lay in the midst of her bloom;
I prayed that my maker might take me,
And send my soul down to its doom.
I wonder will l be forgiven,
When l meet my maker someday;
I wonder will I see my darling,
In that bright happy land far away?
So now I have told you the reason,
Why the tear in my eye never dries;
For all those long years l have lingered,
Just awaiting my time for to die.
Collected in 1951 from John Molloy of St. Shott's, NL, and published in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).
Popularized as Why There's A Tear In My Eye by the bluegrass singing of the Carter Family (Carter Family On Border Radio, 1938-1941). Also recorded by Jimmie Rodgers (My Time Ain't Long, RCA, 1964; My Old Pal, ASV, 1989).
