O wert thou in the cauld blast
On yonder lea, on yonder lea,
My plaidie to the angry airt,
I'd shelter thee, I'd shelter thee.
Or did Misfortune's bitter storms
Around thee blaw, around thee blaw,
Thy [bield]1 should be my bosom
To share it a', to share it a'.

Or were I in the wildest waste,
Sae black and bare, sae black and bare,
The desert were a Paradise
If thou wert there, if thou wert there.
Or were I monarch of the globe,
Wi' thee to reign, wi' thee to reign,
The brightest jewel in my crown
Wad be my queen, wad be my queen.

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Confirmed with The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, edited by James Barke with an Introduction by John Cairney, Collins, Glasgow, 1995, Page 698.

¹ note: in some editions, this is "shield"; "bield" means "shelter". Searching Google books, we can see that "bield" appears in more editions scanned than does "shield".

Text Authorship:

• by Robert Burns (1759 - 1796), "Oh wert thou in the cauld blast" [author's text checked 2 times against a primary source]

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

• by Henry Hugo Pierson (1816 - 1873), as Henry Hugo Pearson, "Love", published 1842 [ voice and piano ], from 6 Lieder von Freiligrath nach R. Burns, no. 5, Leipzig, Kistner, also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text not yet checked]
• by Francis George Scott (1880 - 1958), "O, wert thou in the cauld blast", published 1949 [ voice and piano ], from 35 Scottish Lyrics and other Poems, no. 15, Bayley & Ferguson for The Saltire Society, Glasgow, page 61 [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Ferdinand Freiligrath (1810 - 1876) , no title, appears in Gedichte, in Robert Burns. Elf Lieder [later 13 Lieder], no. 3 ; composed by Robert Franz, Adolf Jensen, Carl Kloberg, Heinrich August Marschner, Felix Mendelssohn, Henry Hugo Pierson, as Henry Hugo Pearson, Rudolf Schneider, Felix von Woyrsch.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by (Johann) Philipp Kaufmann (1802 - 1846) ; composed by Wilhelm Eckardt.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Wilhelm Christoph Leonhard Gerhard (1780 - 1858) ; composed by Moritz Hauptmann.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Heinrich Leuthold (1827 - 1879) , "O wenn um dich auf kahler Haid" ; composed by Wilhelm Reinhard Berger, Wilhelm Sturm.
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• Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Samuil Yakovlevich Marschak (1887 - 1964) ; composed by Tikhon Nikolayevich Khrennikov, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, Georgiy Vasil'yevich Sviridov.
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• Also set in Swedish (Svenska), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist [an adaptation] ; composed by Hugo Alfvén.
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Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• CZE Czech (Čeština) (Josef Václav Sládek) , "O, kdybys mraznou vichřicí…"
• FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (József Lévay) , "Oh, ha járnál ott a pusztán..."

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Iain Sneddon [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-19
Line count: 16
Word count: 107