Mandis Geary/My Man
 
Mandis geary chants mandi a gilli in romani jib
He’s just a hedgebumper with nothing to give
But mandi coms my geary with all of my heart
So with the romanychal, that’s my rom I’ll never part.
 
Around the yog he kels the bosh till late in the night
Then jels to woodus and holds mandi so tight
He rokkers mandis gudlo dosta to scren
through mandis life by his side I’m happy to stand
 
He rokkers no loovney could have lored his heart
Only to a rakli that’s pure with it, would he part
With gorger raklis he’s been with a few
But when it came to a wife only a romany would do.

Rosie Smith, pictured above aged 18 with Rosie Baker, lives the gypsy life with her extended family on the North Downs in Surrey. Her family are well known for their music and song. Her book, Old Ways, New Days: A Family History of Gypsy Life in South London and Kent, written with her second cousin,  Lindsey Marsh, contains an album of photographs of the Smith family with reminiscences on the gypsy way of life. Prize fighting, traditions, music, songs, poetry, with a vocabulary of gypsy words.

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