by Robert Burns (1759 - 1796)

Language: Scottish (Scots) 
Our translations:  FRE
I gaed a waefu' gate yestreen,
A gate I fear I'll dearly rue:
I gat my death frae twa sweet een,
Twa lovely een o' bonie blue!
'Twas not her golden ringlets bright,
Her lips like roses wat wi' dew,
Her heaving bosom lily-white:
It was her een sae bonie blue.

She talk'd, she smil'd, my heart she wyl'd,
She charm'd my soul I wist na how;
And ay the stound, the deadly wound,
Cam frae her een sae bonie blue.
But 'spare to speak, and spare to speed' -
She'll aiblins listen to my vow:
Should she refuse, I'll lay my dead
To her twa een sae bonie blue.
Confirmed with The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns, Cambridge edition, Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1897, page 230.

Glossary:

Blathrie = nonsense
Gate = road
Een = eyes
Wyl'd = beguiled by flattery
Wist = knew
Stound = ache, pain
Aiblins = perhaps

Composition:

    Set to music by (Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809), "The blathrie o't", JHW XXXII/3 no. 165, Hob. XXXIa no. 162

Text Authorship:

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


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2006-04-05
Line count: 16
Word count: 109