Chorus
  Green grow the rashes, O ;
  Green grow the rashes, O ;
The sweetest hours that e'er I [spend]1,
  Are spent amang the lasses, O.

There's nought but care on ev'ry han',
  In ev'ry hour that passes, O:
What signifies the life o' man
  If 'twere na for the lasses, O.

The [war'ly]2 race may riches chase,
  And riches still may fly them, O;
And tho' at last they catch them fast,
  Their hearts can ne'er enjoy them, O.

[But gie]3 me a canny hour at e'en,
  My arms about my dearie, O,
[An']4 [war'ly]2 cares, and [war'ly]2 men
  May a' gae tapsalteerie, O !

For you sae [douce]5, ye sneer at this ;
  Ye're nought but senseless asses O;
The wisest man the warld saw,
  He dearly lov'd the lasses, O.

Auld Nature swears, the lovely dears
  Her noblest work she classes, O;
Her prentice han' she tried on man,
  And then she made the lasses, O.

 (Chorus)

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns, Cambridge edition, Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1897, page 76.

Glossary:
Canny = gentle
Tapsalteerie = topsy-turvy
Douse = sober, prudent

¹ Haydn : "spent"
² Haydn : "warldly"
³ Haydn : "Gie"
⁴ Haydn : "And"
⁵ Haydn : "douse"

Text Authorship:

• by Robert Burns (1759 - 1796), "Green grow the rashes, O" [author's text checked 1 time 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 Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, Sir (1883 - 1953), "Green grow the rashes O!", subtitle: "Character sketch", 1918, published 1920 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by (Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809), "Green grow the rashes", JHW XXXII/3 no. 218, Hob. XXXIa no. 8bis [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Thomas Pasatieri (b. 1945), "Green grow the rushes", 2003 [ voice and piano ], from A rustling of angels, no. 7 [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in French (Français), a translation by Henri-François-Louis-Auguste Potez (1863 - c1946) [an adaptation] ; composed by André Gédalge.
  • Go to the text.
    

Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• CZE Czech (Čeština) (Josef Václav Sládek) , "Ó sítin zelených"
• FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Les roseaux poussent verts, oh !", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Ferdinando Albeggiani

This text was added to the website: 2010-01-10
Line count: 26
Word count: 155