The two ravens | As I was walking all alone

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from Volkslieder (Folksongs)

Translation © by David K. Smythe

The twa corbies

Language: English

As I was walking all alane,
I heard twa corbies making a mane;
The tane unto the [t'other]¹ say,
'[Where]² sall we gang and dine [today]³?'

"In behint yon auld fail dyke,
I wot there lies a new-slain knight;
And naebody kens that he lies there,
But his hawk, his hound, and [his]⁴ lady fair.

His hound is to the hunting gane,
His hawk, to fetch the wild-fowl hame,
His lady's ta'en another mate,
So we may make our dinner sweet.

Ye'll sit on his white hause-bane,
And I'll pike out his bonny blue e'en;
Wi' ae lock o' his gowden hair
We'll theek our nest when it grows bare.

Many a one for him makes mane,
But nane sall ken [whare]² he is gane:
O'er his white banes, when they are bare,
The wind sall blaw for evermair."

Authorship:

from Volkslieder (Folksongs) , "The twa corbies", published by Sir Walter Scott, as written down, from tradition, by a lady, from The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Vol. 3, James Ballantyne, Edinburgh, first published 1803 [author's text not yet checked 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 Frederic Ayres (1876 - 1926), "The twa corbies" [sung text checked 1 time]
by Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, Sir (1883 - 1953), "The twa corbies", 1906 [ reciter and piano ], from Two Recitations for spoken voice and piano, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882 - 1961), "The twa corbies", 1903-1909, published 1924 [ baritone and piano or 2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, contrabass ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "The twa corbies", 1914-1915, published 1920 [ voice and piano ], in Music and Letters [sung text checked 1 time]

Set in a modified version by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Percy Aldridge Grainger, John Ireland, Thomas Ravenscroft.

Go to the text. [ view differences ] DUT

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in French (Français), a translation by A. Aleksandrova ; composed by Sigizmund Mikhailovich Blumenfel'd.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by (Karl) Wilhelm Osterwald (1820 - 1887) ; composed by Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Sigizmund Mikhailovich Blumenfel'd.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Anna Teichmüller.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Oskar Ludwig Bernhard Wolff (1799 - 1851) [an adaptation] ; composed by Carl Banck.
Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799 - 1837) , no title, written 1828, first published 1828 ; composed by Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Aliabev, Sigizmund Mikhailovich Blumenfel'd, Nikita Vladimirovich Bogoslovsky, Evgeny Ivanovich Bukke, Aleksandr Sergeyevich Dargomyzhsky, Viktor Stepanovych Kosenko , Sergey Mikhailovich Lyapunov, Nikolai Karlovich Medtner, Ivan Alexandrovich Pomazansky, Vladimir Ivanovich Rebikov, Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov, Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein, V. Ryabov, Georgiy Vasil'yevich Sviridov, Ilya Fyodorovich Tyumenev, Aleksei Nikolayevich Verstovsky, Mikhail Yur'yevich Viel'gorsky.
Also set in Ukrainian (Українська), a translation by Ivan Yakovych Franko (1856 - 1916) ; composed by Viktor Stepanovych Kosenko .

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

ENG English (David K. Smythe) , "The two ravens", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Anonymous/Unidentified Artist) , no title, first published 1826

Researcher for this text: David K. Smythe

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-02
Line count: 20
Word count: 139

The two ravens

Language: English after the English

As I was walking all alone,
I heard two ravens complaining;
The one to the other saying,
'Where shall we go and dine today?'

"In behind that old field wall,
I know that there lies a new-slain knight;
And nobody knows that he lies there,
But his hawk, his hound, and lady fair.

His hound is to the hunting gone,
His hawk, to fetch the wild-fowl home,
His lady's taken another mate,
So we may make our dinner sweet.

You'll sit on his white collar-bone,
And I'll peck out his pretty blue eyes;
With this lock of his golden hair
We'll roof our nest when it grows bare.

Very many for him lament,
But none shall know where he is gone:
Over his white bones, when they are bare,
The wind shall blow for evermore."

Authorship:

Translation from English to English copyright © by David K. Smythe, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:

a text in English from Volkslieder (Folksongs) , "The twa corbies", published by Sir Walter Scott, as written down, from tradition, by a lady, from The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Vol. 3, James Ballantyne, Edinburgh, first published 1803

This text was added to the website:
Line count: 20
Word count: 135