I wish, I wish- Pemberton (Nevis) c.1965 Abrahams A
[My title. From: Charles Walters: West Indian Autolycus by Roger D. Abrahams; Western Folklore, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Apr., 1968), pp. 77-95; Western States Folklore Society. Collected in British West Indies islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis by Abrahams between 1962 and 1966. Collected from islanders who were influenced by Charles Waters (c. 1900), a talented blind musician.
R. Matteson 2017]
"Pops" Pemberton of Charlestown, Nevis, provides the following:
I wish, I wish my babe was born,
To sit upon his daddy's knee,
And me poor girl had died and gone,
And green grass growing over me.
I wish, I wish, I wish in vain,
I wish I were a maid again.
No maid, no maid I could ever be,
Not if apple bear on pepper tree.[1]
The last stanza is more commonly sung by other singers:
Oh, dig my grave both wide and deep,
A marble stone to my head and feet;
And in the middle a turtle dove,
To show the world I died for love.
1. Or "Till cherry hang upon apple tree" (from the singing of Ruth Hanley, Rawlins Village, Nevis.