[Editor: This song was published in Old Bush Songs: Composed and Sung in the Bushranging, Digging, and Overlanding Days (8th edition, 1932), edited by Banjo Paterson.]
Our Jack
D’ye ken our Jack with his note so gay,
D’ye ken our Jack at the break of day,
D’ye ken our Jack though he’s far, far away,
On a ring-barked tree bough in the morning?
Chorus
For the sound of his laugh brought me from my bed,
And the scents of the bush; the blue sky o’er head;
Jack’s HOO HA HOO! would awaken the dead,
If a Bushman lay still in the morning.
D’ye ken our Jack with his note so gay,
We knew him “Out-Back” once on a day,
Now we have come far, far, far away;
We can ne’er hear his voice in the morning.
Chorus
Yes I ken our Jack with his HAA HAA HOO!
On a straggling branch ’gainst a sky so blue,
And the scents of the bush, and the Gum-trees too;
And I wish I were there in the morning.
Chorus
Then here’s to our Jack from my heart and soul,
Let’s drink to his health, let’s finish the bowl.
May we, hear our Jack with his laughter droll,
And awake in the Bush some fine morning.
Chorus
Source:
A. B. Paterson (editor), Old Bush Songs: Composed and Sung in the Bushranging, Digging, and Overlanding Days (8th edition), Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1932, pp. 184-185
Editor’s notes:
droll = amusement or humour which is unusual, odd, peculiar, whimsical, quaint, dry, or wry in its manner or style
d’ye = (archaic) a vernacular form of “do ye” (do you)
’gainst = (vernacular) against
gay = happy, joyous, carefree; well-decorated, bright, attractive (in modern times it may especially refer to a homosexual, especially a male homosexual; can also refer to something which is no good, pathetic, useless)
Jack = “laughing jackass” (kookaburra)
ken = knowledge, perception, understanding (also means “know”, particularly as used in Scotland)
ne’er = (vernacular) an archaic contraction of “never”
o’er = (archaic) over (pronounced the same as “oar”, “or”, and “ore”)
Out-Back = remote rural areas; sparsely-inhabited back country; often given as one word and capitalized, “Outback” (variations: out back, outback, out-back, Out Back, Outback, Out-Back)
ring-bark = to cut away or remove a ring of bark from around a tree, especially so as to kill it (also spelt: ringbark)
[Editor: The word “Chorus” (which is used several times in this song) has been put into italics (Chorus) so as to distinguish it from the text of the song.]
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