possibly by Robert Burns (1759 - 1796)

As I cam down by yon castle wa' 
Language: Scottish (Scots) 
Our translations:  FRE
As I cam down by yon castle wa',
And in by yon garden green,
O, there I spied a bonnie lass,
But the flow'r borders were us between.

A bonnie, bonnie lassie she was,
As ever mine eyes did see!
O, five hundred pounds would I give,
For to have a pretty bride like thee.

To have a pretty bride like me,
Young man, ye are fairly mista'en;
Tho' ye were king o' fair Scotland,
I then wad despise being your queen.

Talk not so high, my bonnie, bonnie lass,
O, talk not so very, very high;
The man at the fair that wad sell,
Maun learn at the man that wad buy.

GLOSSARY

Bonnie = beautiful
Maun = must

Text Authorship:

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

Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , title 1: "Quand je descendis le chemin au-delà du château", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this page: Ferdinando Albeggiani

This text was added to the website: 2013-03-25
Line count: 16
Word count: 113