Ae Fond Kiss

Ae fond kiss and then we sever
Ae fareweel, alas for ever
Deep in heart-wrung tears i'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.
Had we never lov'd sae kindly,
Had we never lov'd sae blindly,
Never met or never parted,
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.

I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy,
Nae thing could resist my Nancy;
But to see her was to love her,
Love but her, and love for ever;
Had we never lov'd sae kindly,
Had we never lov'd sae blindly.
Never met or never parted
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.

Fare thee weel, thou first and fairest,
Fare thee weel, thou best and dearest,
Thine be ilka joy and treasure,
Peace, enjoyment, love and pleasure.
Had we never lov'd sae kindly
Had we never lov'd sae blindly,
Never met or never parted
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.

Robert Burns

The words have nothing to do with the picture, except for the fact that I was standing looking out of the window at the clouds whilst listening to the song.

Although I've wandered around Scotland a fair bit and washed up on the shore of these isles, I'm an Ayrshire lass and grew up steeped in the works of Rabbie. Dieseldaisy and I were discussing today what our all time top ten would be. I found it almost impossible to think what it would be, mainly due to being fickle. But I guess this would be up there.

Whilst I'm sure the traditionalists might not be too keen on Eddi Reader's version, I'd rather listen to her or Dougie Maclean sing it than some eedjit wae plooms in their mooth anyday.