My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here:
My heart's in the Highlands, a chasing the deer;
[Chasing]1 the wild deer, and following the roe --
My heart's in the Highlands wherever I go.
Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,
The birthplace of valour, the country of worth;
Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,
The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.
 
Farewell to the mountains high [cover’d]2 with snow;
Farewell to the straths and green [valleys]3 below;
Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods;
Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.
My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart's in the Highlands a chasing the deer;
[Chasing]1 the wild deer, and following the roe --
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.

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Confirmed with The Works of Robert Burns, London: T. Tegg, Cheapside; C. Daly, Red Lion Square, MDCCCXL, page 384.

¹ Arditti: "A-chasing"
² Arditti: "covered"
³ Gade: "vallies" (typo?)

Text Authorship:

• by Robert Burns (1759 - 1796), "My heart's in the Highlands" [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 David Arditti (b. 1964), "My Heart's in the Highlands", op. 1 no. 1, first performed 1994, from Burns Songs, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Patti Drennan , "My Heart's in the Highlands" [ SATB chorus with optional violin ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Niels Wilhelm Gade (1817 - 1890), "My heart’s in the Highlands", op. 9 no. 3, published 1845 [ vocal duet for 2 sopranos with piano ], from Lieder im Volkston [first published as Neun Lieder im Volkston], no. 3, Leipzig, Breitkopf und Härtel, also set in French (Français), also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text checked 1 time]
• by ?, Lady Kemball , "Farewell to the Highlands", published 1850? [ voice, piano, cello ], London : Chappell & Co. Ltd. [sung text not yet checked]
• by Jean Langlais (1907 - 1991), "My Heart's in the Highlands", 1951 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Arvo Pärt (b. 1935), "My Heart's in the Highlands" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Henry Hugo Pierson (1816 - 1873), as Henry Hugo Pearson, "My Heart's in the Highlands", published 1842 [ voice and piano ], from 6 Lieder von Freiligrath nach R. Burns, no. 3, Leipzig, Kistner, also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text not yet checked]
• by Donna Gartman Schultz (b. 1948), "My Heart's in the Highlands" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Mabel Nightingale Woodward (1876 - 1911), "My heart's in the highlands", published 1912 [ voice and piano ], from Songs, no. 8, Birmingham : Press of the Birmingham Printers [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in French (Français), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Niels Wilhelm Gade.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Wilhelm Christoph Leonhard Gerhard (1780 - 1858) , "Mein Herz ist im Hochland" ; composed by Otto Claudius, Wilhelm Eckardt, Alexander Fesca, Gustav Flügel, Hans Harthan, Adolf Jensen, Carl August Krebs, Friedrich Wilhelm Kücken, Henry Hugo Pierson, Carl Richter, Robert Schumann, Julius Stern.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Friedrich Niggli (1875 - 1959) ; composed by Friedrich Niggli.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by (Johann) Philipp Kaufmann (1802 - 1846) , appears in Gedichte von Robert Burns, first published 1839 ; composed by Otto Dresel, Ferdinand von Hiller.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Ferdinand Freiligrath (1810 - 1876) , "Mein Herz ist im Hochland", appears in Gedichte, in Robert Burns. Elf Lieder [later 13 Lieder], no. 9[11] ; composed by Otto Baehr, Paul Claussnitzer, Robert Franz, Niels Wilhelm Gade, Wilhelm Kleinecke, Heinrich August Marschner, Henry Hugo Pierson, as Henry Hugo Pearson, Karl Heinrich Carsten Reinecke, Ferdinand Sieber, Hans Sitt, Václav Jan Křtitel Tomášek.
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• Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Mira Mendelson-Prokof'yeva (1915 - 1968) ; composed by Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky.
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Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• CZE Czech (Čeština) (Josef Václav Sládek) , "Mé srdce je v horách"
• POL Polish (Polski) (Jan Kasprowicz) , "Me serce jest w górach", Warsaw, first published 1907

Researcher for this page: Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 135