Valley of the Bird Singer
Video by: suuzzee5
Video Description:
Many thanks to my good friend, lenaspieltblues, for her assistance with the research and the German. Lena, you helped make this video possible! :)
Vogelsänger Tal (Foglesong Valley) was the valley of my grandmother's people. Translated from the German, it means "valley of the bird singer" or "valley of the one who sings like a bird." This valley is only a few ridges away from my house. I went out with a camera today, on this beautiful spring day, to see if I could capture something of this valley in honor of my grandmother. She died when my father was 12 so I never got to meet her. She and her mother and grandmother all kept journals and they also saved their letters. I've read their papers at least a hundred times and it feels as if I knew these women personally.
Translated from the journal of B.E.S. --- "This valley was tended by my father and my mother birthed her children here. I flowered and grew here, a girl turned into woman by the sun and wind. He splashed water on my bare feet and laughed, and I fell hard in love. He left in a buckboard but came back for me, a woman adored. We rode away from the church, friends singing, white flowers in my hair. No bride was ever happier and rising slowly, I looked back at the only home I'd ever known, hazing into the blueness of the west ridge, my mother's tears catching the sun like broken mirrors. The valley of the bird singer, once my true home, now left finally for a wild lad from Scotland, a mountain man whose father lived among the Indians and took an Indian woman for a wife. His heritage showed hard on his face and in his nature. My mother said I disgraced my father and the family in Germany by marrying this man, but he had taken my heart into his when the water hit my bare feet. I think my mother understood. The bird singers were my family but now I have gone to live among the Scots, a strange breed of folks, much given to secretiveness and odd ways."
THE WINDING STREAM
(written by A.P.Carter)
(performed by Carlene Carter)
Oh give to me a winding stream
It must not be too wide
Where waving leaves from maple trees
Do meet from either side
The water must be deep enough
To float a small canoe
With no one else but you
Do not disturb my waking dream
The splendor of that winding stream
Flower in my canoe, his eyes they looked me through
That someone there with golden hair
Is very much like you
The sparkling trout beneath the bank
Does leave his hiding place
Kingfisher from the bough above
So eager to give to chase
The spreading branches over head
The sunlight peeping through
Reminding me of you
Do not disturb my waking dream
The splendor of that winding stream
Flower in my canoe, his eyes they looked me through
That someone there with golden hair
Is very much like you
Tags: appalachian bird blue foglesong genealogy german highlands mountains ridge scot singer tal valley virginia vogelsänger valley of the bird singer
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I always love the Carter Family!
SOUND AND VISION!
:-)
have a nice day
I just came back to hear and see this for about the ninth or tenth time. Thanks for posting and sjarong a touch of Heaven on Earth with us.
Very nice 5 star favorite,
--:)Rod
That is very special. Thanks for posting and letting me read it. Very beautiful and I sure understand how someone could write about such a pretty place.
Thanks again so very much,
--:)Rod
Your video is beautiful, I give it 5 stars.
Your grandmother's words, though-
my heart is warmed and my eyes blurred with tears.
"He splashed water on my bare feet and laughed, and I fell hard in love."
I hope you publish her journal,
it would be a gift to the world!