How [lang]1 and dreary is the night
When I am frae my Dearie;
I restless lie frae e'en [to]2 morn
Though I were ne'er sae weary.
Chorus. -- For oh, her lanely nights are lang!
And oh, her dreams are eerie;
And oh, her window'd heart is sair,
That's absent frae her Dearie!
When I think on the [lightsome]3 days
I spent wi' [thee]4, my Dearie;
And now what [seas]5 between us [roar]6,
How can I be but eerie?
For oh, &c.
How slow ye move, ye heavy hours;
[The joyless day how dreary:]7
It was na sae ye glinted by,
When I was wi' my Dearie!
For oh, &c.
A. Beach sets stanzas 1, 3-4
M. White sets stanzas 3, 4
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with Burns, Robert. Poems and Songs, Vol. VI. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909–14;
Note: the Burns text appears in the White score as if it is a translation of this German text (or vice versa), but although they are both set to the same music, they are unrelated textually.
Glossary:
Eerie = affected with fear or dread
Window'd = widowed
Glinted = passed quickly like a transient gleam
2 Beach: "tae"
3 White: "happy"
4 White: "you"
5 Beach, White: "lands"
6 Beach, White: "lie"
7 Beach, White: "As ye were wae and weary"
Text Authorship:
- by Robert Burns (1759 - 1796), "Song -- How lang and dreary is the night" [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 Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867 - 1944), "Dearie", op. 43 (Five Burns Songs) no. 1, published c1899, stanzas 1,3-4 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Benjamin Burrows (1891 - 1966), "How long and dreary", 1927, published 1929 [ voice and piano or string quartet ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by (Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809), "Cauld kail in Aberdeen", Hob. XXXIa:55bis, JHW. XXXII/3 no. 226 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Maude Valérie White (1855 - 1937), "How lang and dreary is the night", published 1885, stanzas 3,4 [ voice and piano ], from Album of German Songs (later published as Sixteen German Songs), no. 15, London: Stanley Lucas, Weber & Col.; also reprinted by Recital Publications (Texas) in 1995 [sung text checked 1 time]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in French (Français), a translation by Henri-François-Louis-Auguste Potez (1863 - c1946) ; composed by André Gédalge.
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Ignaz Brüll.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Josef Václav Sládek) , "Jak dlouhá, smutná je ta noc"
- FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Comme la nuit est longue et maussade", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 118