His Songs IX. Time Goes By Turns. Translation, Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings

HIS SONGS, from Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings

IX. TIME GOES BY TURNS

Translation

There's a powerful wrestle betwixt the Good and the Bad,

And the Bad's got the all-under-hold;

And when the worst comes, she come in iron-clad,

And you better hold your breath for the jolt.

But just towards the last, Good gets the knee-lock,

And they drop to the ground -- ker flop!

Good had the inturn (?), and he stand like a rock,

And he bleeds for to be on top.

The dry weather breaks with a big thunder-clap,

For theere ain't no drought what can last,

But the seasons what whoops up the cotton crop,

Likewise they freshens up the grass.

The rain fall so soft in the long dark night,

'Til you have to hold your hand for a sign,

But the drizzle what sets the potato-slips right

Is the making of the May-pop vine.

In the mellowest ground the clay root'll catch

And hold to the tongue * of the plow,

And a pine-pole gate at the garden-patch

Never'll keep out the old brindle cow.

One and all of us knows who's a-pullin' at the bits

Like the lead-mule that guides by the rein,

And yet, somehow or another, the best one of us gets

Mighty sick of the tuggin' at the chain.

Hump yourself to the load and forget the distress,

And them what stands by to scoff,

For the harder the pullin', the longer the rest,

And the bigger the feed in the trough.

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Mini-glossary

* tongue - parts of a plow - We did not see the tongue, but see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plough/; then visit the towing tongue at a discussion of a chisel plow, at http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4106568.html/

Here is a walking plow, fair use thumbnail from http://ruralheritage.com