Of a' the airts the wind can blaw

Of a' the airts the wind can blaw, 
	I dearly like the west, 
For there the bonnie Lassie lives, 
  The Lassie I lo'e best: 
There's wild-woods grow, and rivers row, 
  And mony a hill between; 
But day and night my fancy's flight 
  Is ever wi' my Jean. 

I see her in the dewy flowers, 
  I see her sweet and fair; 
I hear her in the tunefu' birds, 
  I hear her charm the air: 
There's not a bonnie flower that springs 
  By fountain, shaw, or green; 
There's not a bonnie bird that sings, 
  But minds me o' my Jean.

Translation(s): DAN FRE GER GER GER

List of language codes

About the headline (FAQ)

Authorship

• by Robert Burns (1759 - 1796), no title, written 1788 [ author's text checked 1 time]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

• by David Arditti (b. 1964), "I Love my Jean", op. 1 no. 4, first performed 1994, from Burns Songs, no. 4. [
   text verified 1 time
  ]
• by (Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809), "The Poet's ain Jean", Hob. XXXIa:230, JHW. XXXII/3 no. 219. [voice and piano] [
   text verified 1 time
  ]
• by Mervyn, Lord Horder, the Second Baron of Ashford (1910 - 1998), "My Jean" [voice and piano], from Five Burns Songs, no. 3. [
   text not verified 
  ]
• by Francis George Scott (1880 - 1958), "O' the airts" [
   text not verified 
  ]
• by Maude Valérie White (1855 - 1937), "The lassie I love best", published 1876 [voice and piano], London: Duncan Davison [
   text not verified 
  ]

Settings in other languages or adaptations:

• Also set in Danish (Dansk), a translation by Caspara Preezmann (1792 - 1876) [an adaptation] FRE GER GER by Agathe Ursula Backer-Grøndahl.
  • Go to the text.
    
• Also set in French (Français), a translation by Henri-François-Louis-Auguste Potez (1863 - 19??) DAN GER GER by André Gédalge.
  • Go to the text.
    
• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by (Johann) Philipp Kaufmann (1802 - 1846) , no title, from Gedichte von Robert Burns [an adaptation] DAN FRE by Hans Michael Schletterer.
  • Go to the text.
    
• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Wilhelm Christoph Leonhard Gerhard (1780 - 1858) , title 1: "Meine Jean" DAN FRE by Moritz Hauptmann, Karl Anton Florian Eckert.
  • Go to the text.
    
• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist DAN FRE by Ignaz Brüll.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    

Text added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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