You can find them…here! The only place I’ve found them online was on Google Books, since the song was published with a novel. Suzette Haden Elgin’s songs are really hard to find copies and recording of, and it’s a shame.
(I’ll throw in the chords too, because…I happen to have them. It’s supposedly to a traditional tune, but I’ve never been able to find a recording of “The Welcome” for some reason.)
C F C
“Sing me a song,” said the child in the garden.
F C G7
“Grandmother, sing! I’ll sit here by your side.
C Am F C
Sing me a song of the world they call Terra,
C7 F C F C
The world that you came from when you were a bride.”
“Child, I have journeyed all over the starfields,
Out to the rim of the worlds that we know – –
Child, I can’t sing you a song about Terra!
For Terra was too many planets ago!”
“Sing me a song,” said the child in the garden.
“Grandmother, sing to me! Tell me no lies.
Sing me a song of the world they call Terra;
I know you remember, by the tears in your eyes.”
“Child, I have journeyed all over the starfields,
Child, I have left all my memories behind.
Child, I can’t sing you a song about Terra,
For I have put Terra clear out of my mind.”
“Grandmother, sing!” said the child in the garden.
“I have learned all about stubborn from you.
Sing me a song of the world they call Terra,
Where the grasses grow green and the oceans are blue.”
“Child, how you weary me, asking of Terra!
You are no babe! You should understand why.
We who left Terra for ever and ever
Were those who could tell her forever goodbye!”
“Child, I have journeyed all over the starfields,
Out to the rim of the worlds that we know – –
Child, I can’t sing you a song about Terra!
For Terra was too many planets ago!”
