Lemon Tree song

Lemon Tree very pretty

And the flower very sweet.



But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.


This Lemon Tree is a song of my youth. We didn't have a radio at that time. Television hasn't arrived in Sibu, Borneo yet. My neighbour had a radio, and they blared their songs so loudly, even though we lived in quarter acre houses, we could hear the transmission, though not very clearly. So I could only hear the chorus. In fact, all the kids on the street were sing," Lemon tree, very pretty." I sang it enough to remember it today.

We didn't understand why the crazy singer was singing the lemon tree was very pretty and the fruit was impossible to eat. We didn't have lemon trees but we had lime trees, and they had thorns. Why would someone sing that a thorny tree be pretty. I now have a lemon tree in my garden, and I have become a greenie, and the tree is indeed very pretty.

The other part about the fruit is impossible to eat baffled us. Mum didn't buy a lot of tidbits, so we made our own. We ate our thinly sliced lime in a dip made of soya sauce, salt, sugar and chilli sauce. It was delicious. We ate them rind, peel and all.

Now my siblings and I are grown, our teeth can't handle eating the lime. When my sisters visit me, I asked them if they wanted to eat the lemon like the way we did when we were young, they all shake their heads.

Addition from my youngest sister Grace:
Ann, can you add thinly sliced.. cos I think people reading it thinks that we buy the lemon like we bite plum or peach. One day at the Thai restaurant, I asked for some sugar and the waitress gave me a packet sugar meant for tea and coffee. So I told Chris and Jessie how my sisters ate lemons. After that, Christopher didn't eat any food, he kept on dipping the lemon quarter into the sugar and fish sauce.

the next time we went there, Chris asked for sugar again but I forbid him to eat the lemon because after sucking on the sugar, he wouldn't eat anything else.

love Grace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLhYghzNfII

Peter, Paul & Mary Lemon Tree Lyrics
When I was just a lad of ten, my father said to me,
"Come here and take a lesson from the lovely lemon tree."
"Don't put your faith in love, my boy", my father said to me,
"I fear you'll find that love is like the lovely lemon tree."

Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.

One day beneath the lemon tree, my love and I did lie
A girl so sweet that when she smiled the stars rose in the sky.
We passed that summer lost in love beneath the lemon tree
The music of her laughter hid my father's words from me:

Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.

One day she left without a word. She took away the sun.
And in the dark she left behind, I knew what she had done.
She'd left me for another, it's a common tale but true.
A sadder man but wiser now I sing these words to you:

Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.

LEMON TREE by The Brothers Four