O my [Luve's]1 like a red, red rose 
  That's newly sprung in June: 
O my [Luve's]1 like the melodie 
  That's sweetly play'd in tune. 

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, 
  [So]2 deep in luve am I: 
And I will luve thee still, my dear, 
  Till a' the seas gang dry: 

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear, 
  And the rocks melt wi' the sun; 
I will luve thee still, my dear, 
  While the sands o' life shall run. 

And fare thee weel, my only Luve! 
  And fare thee weel a while! 
And I will come again, my Luve, 
  Tho' it were ten thousand mile.

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Note: due to a similarity in first lines, Berg's song O wär' mein Lieb' jen' Röslein roth is often erroneously indicated as a translation of this poem.

¹ Beach and Scott: "Luve is"; Bacon: "love's"
² Scott: "Sae"

Text Authorship:

• by Robert Burns (1759 - 1796) [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 David Arditti (b. 1964), "O My Luve's Like a Red, Red Rose", op. 1 no. 2, first performed 1994, from Burns Songs, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Ernst Bacon (1898 - 1990), "The red rose", alternate title: "Melody in June", c1945-9 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867 - 1944), "My luve is like a red, red rose", op. 12 (Three Songs) no. 3 (1887) [ treble voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Frederick Brandeis (1835 - 1899), "My love is like the red, red rose", 1886 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by (Henry) Walford Davies, Sir (1869 - 1941), "The Farewell", op. 3 (Six Songs) no. 1, published 1897 [ voice and piano ], London : Novello, Ewer, & Co. [sung text not yet checked]
• by Paulo Florence (1864 - 1949), "My love is like a red red rose", 1926, published 1926 [ voice and piano ], from Cinco canções internacionais, no. 4, São Paulo: Ed. do autor [sung text not yet checked]
• by Arthur Foote (1853 - 1937), "O my luve's like a red, red rose", op. 13 (Five songs) no. 1, published 1887, copyright © 1887 [ voice and piano ], Boston, Schmidt [sung text checked 1 time]
• by John Linton Gardner (1917 - 2011), "My luve is like a red, red rose", op. 213 no. 3, published 1993 [ mixed chorus and orchestra ], from A Burns Sequence, no. 3, London : Oxford University Press [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ernest Gold (1921 - 1999), "A red, red rose" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Mervyn, Lord Horder, the Second Baron of Ashford (1910 - 1998), "A red, red rose" [ voice and piano ], from Five Burns Songs, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Jeffreys (1927 - 2010), "The farewell" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by John G. Koch (b. 1928), "O my Luve's like a red, red rose" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Leonard J[ordan] Lehrman (b. 1949), "A red, red rose", op. 47 [ voice a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by James MacMillan (b. 1959), "So deep" [ soli and chorus ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Humphrey Procter-Gregg (1895 - 1980), "O my Luve's like a red, red rose" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Clara Kathleen Rogers (1844 - 1931), "O my luve's like a red, red rose" [ four-part chorus and piano? ], from Three Four-Part Songs, no. 2, unpublished [sung text not yet checked]
• by Francis George Scott (1880 - 1958), "My luve is like a red, red rose", published 1936 [ baritone and piano ], from Scottish Lyrics, Book 4, no. 12, Bayley & Ferguson; confirmed with Songs of Francis George Scott, selected and edited by Neil Mackay, Roberton Publications, Aylesbury, 1980, page 10 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Arthur Somervell, Sir (1863 - 1937), "A red, red rose", 1885, published 1886 [ voice and piano ], from Six Songs by Robert Burns, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
• by George Theophilus Walker (b. 1922), "A red, red rose" [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in Czech (Čeština), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Zdenko Antonín Václav Fibich.
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• Also set in Danish (Dansk), a translation by Emil Aarestrup (1800 - 1856) , "O, du er lig en Rose rød" ; composed by Leopold Rosenfeld.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Wilhelm Christoph Leonhard Gerhard (1780 - 1858) , "Rothes Röslein" ; composed by Carl Attenhofer, Gustav Eggers, Alexander Fesca, Bruno Oscar Klein, Heinrich von Sahr, Robert Schumann.
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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 Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Carl Bohm, Franciscus Wilhelmus Bouman, Rudolf Buck, George Henschel, Eugène Jámbor, Robert Schwalm, Emil Weeber, Jakob Wolff.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Ferdinand Freiligrath (1810 - 1876) , no title, appears in Gedichte, in Robert Burns. Elf Lieder [later 13 Lieder], no. 6[8], first published 1836 ; composed by Robert Franz, Peter Gast, Karl Grammann, Ferdinand Gumbert, O. Heller, Carl Hohfeld, Eduard Lassen, Heinrich August Marschner, Elise Schmezer, Malvina Schnorr von Carolsfeld.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by (Johann) Philipp Kaufmann (1802 - 1846) , first published 1830 ; composed by Carl Ferdinand Konradin, Joseph Rheinberger.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Jan Karol Gall, Louis Rée.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Gustav Flügel, Ernst Paul Flügel.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Paul Heinze (1858 - 1912) , no title ; composed by Albert Fuchs.
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• Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Samuil Yakovlevich Marschak (1887 - 1964) , "Любовь" ; composed by Georgiy Vasil'yevich Sviridov.
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• Also set in Swedish (Svenska), a translation by Magnus Gustaf Retzius (1842 - 1919) , "Min vän är lik den röda ros", written 1872 ; composed by Oscar Blom.
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Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• SWG Swiss German (Schwizerdütsch) (August Corrodi) , "Min schatz ist wienes Röseli", first published 1870
• CZE Czech (Čeština) (Josef Václav Sládek) , "Má milá jest jak růžička"
• FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• GRE Greek (Ελληνικά) [singable] (Christakis Poumbouris) , "Η π’ αγαπώ ’ναι ρόδο ροζ", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (József Lévay) , "Szerelmem, mint piros rózsa..."
• IRI Irish (Gaelic) [singable] (Gabriel Rosenstock) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Iain Sneddon [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 109