by Robert Burns (1759 - 1796)

Language: Scottish (Scots) 
Our translations:  FRE
Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled, 
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, 
Welcome to your gory bed
Or to victorie! 

Now's the day, and now's the hour :
See the front o' battle lour,
See approach proud Edward's power –
Chains and slaverie! 

Wha will be a traitor knave? 
Wha can fill a coward's grave? 
Wha sae base as be a slave? 
Let him turn and flee! 

Wha, for Scotland's King and Law, 
Freedom's sword will strongly draw, 
Free-man stand, or free-man fa', 
Let him on wi' me! 

By oppression's woes and pains,
By your sons in servile chains,
We will drain our dearest veins 
But they shall be free! 

Lay the proud usurpers low! 
Tyrants fall in every foe! 
Liberty's in every blow!
Let us do or die!
Confirmed with The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns, Cambridge edition, Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1897, page 285.

Composition:

    Set to music by David Arditti (b. 1964), "Bruce's March to Bannockburn", op. 1 no. 5, first performed 1994, from Burns Songs, no. 5

Text Authorship:

See other settings of this text.

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

  • CZE Czech (Čeština) (Josef Václav Sládek) , "Před bitvou u Bannockburnu"
  • FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • POL Polish (Polski) (Jan Kasprowicz) , "Bruce’a odezwa do wojsk pod Bannockburn", Warsaw, first published 1907


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 128