John Anderson, my jo, John, 
  When we were first acquent, 
Your locks were like the raven, 
  Your bonie brow was brent; 
But now your brow is beld, John, 
  Your locks are like the snaw; 
But blessings on your frosty pow, 
  John Anderson, my jo! 

John Anderson, my jo, John, 
  We clamb the hill thegither, 
And mony a cantie day, John, 
  We've had wi' ane anither: 
Now we maun totter down, John, 
  But hand in hand we'll go, 
And sleep thegither at the foot, 
  John Anderson, my jo!

Confirmed with The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns, Cambridge edition, Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1897, page 223.

Composition:

Set to music by (Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809), "John Anderson, my jo", JHW. XXXII/5 no. 390, Hob. XXXIa no. 2bis

Text Authorship:

• by Robert Burns (1759 - 1796), "John Anderson, my jo"

See other settings of this text.

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

• CZE Czech (Čeština) (Josef Václav Sládek) , "Jan Andersen"
• FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Valter Juva) , "John Anderson"
• FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "John Anderson, mon chéri", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (József Lévay) , "John Anderson"
• POL Polish (Polski) (Jan Kasprowicz) , "Dżon Anderson, ty mój!", Warsaw, first published 1907
• RUS Russian (Русский) (Mikhail Larionovich Mikhailov) , no title, first published 1856

Researcher for this page: Pierre Mathé [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 87