There is a darkness to many of Tunng's songs of this era.
What sounds at first hearing like a sweet fairytale of a song about a girl transforming into a hare contains not-so-hidden shadows.
"Woodcat oh once a girl, but not since the incident" gives a clue: something happened to the girl that so traumatised her that she has since been unrecognisable: she has transformed, metaphorically, or perhaps in her mind, into a hare as a result. The people (because "they" - plural - are referred to) who committed this atrocity "left your brown body, gentle and shivering, Back in the clearing with the deer in the evening."
Her partner still loves her and misses their former relationship so much that he wants to "look for a man to turn me into a hare" as well, so that he can be close to her again - then he'll come and find her so that they can "live like lovers in an old wooden rhyme".
The hint is that the girl was gang-raped. The court case happened and "the rats ran about and the verdict flew out" but the damage was done. And the really dark punchline?
"They said it was a lovely time."
(And not quoted here, but at the end of the song there is also the line "all in for a lovely time", which presumably refers to something said by her attackers at the time of "the incident".
There is a darkness to many of Tunng's songs of this era. What sounds at first hearing like a sweet fairytale of a song about a girl transforming into a hare contains not-so-hidden shadows. "Woodcat oh once a girl, but not since the incident" gives a clue: something happened to the girl that so traumatised her that she has since been unrecognisable: she has transformed, metaphorically, or perhaps in her mind, into a hare as a result. The people (because "they" - plural - are referred to) who committed this atrocity "left your brown body, gentle and shivering, Back in the clearing with the deer in the evening." Her partner still loves her and misses their former relationship so much that he wants to "look for a man to turn me into a hare" as well, so that he can be close to her again - then he'll come and find her so that they can "live like lovers in an old wooden rhyme". The hint is that the girl was gang-raped. The court case happened and "the rats ran about and the verdict flew out" but the damage was done. And the really dark punchline? "They said it was a lovely time." (And not quoted here, but at the end of the song there is also the line "all in for a lovely time", which presumably refers to something said by her attackers at the time of "the incident".