Iroh was walking through Ba Sing Se one evening and were heading back to the Jasmine Dragon with the groceries they had picked up. He walked in silence until he heard something that peaked his interest. At one of the tea shops down the road from his, a man with a stringed instrument was playing the end of a song. Iroh had always enjoyed music and rarely missed the opportunity to listen to a new song, so he walked into the tea shop and sat at a table near the door.
"That is one of my oldest and most popular songs. I only recently discovered the scroll for this next song. It did not have a title on the scroll, but enough talking, on to the song!" and with that, the instrumentalist strummed a few introductory chords and began to sing:
Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
'Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so.
And if you come, when all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
You'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me.
And I shall hear, tho' soft you tread above me
And all my dreams will warm and sweeter be
If you'll not fail to tell me that you love me
I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.
I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.
The instrumentalist strummed the final chord and let it ring. "The scroll had a little bit of history about this song. It tells the story of an old man watching his only son go to war in his place." He explained.
Iroh could not keep the tears from rolling down his cheeks. The anniversary of his son's death had only been a few days earlier, and the grief was once again fresh in his mind. He sat at his table for nearly ten minutes before he felt he had calmed down enough to walk back to his own tea shop. Iroh collected his things and finished his trek back to the Jasmine Dragon.
