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David McQuillan
I finally decided I should try and do better than just humm hum humm after the first verse. Here I've got what I think are the verses as they are normally sung hereabouts, plus links to some sites which go into the background, translation and the numerous variants and spellings far better than I ever could.
Then again maybe I'm missing the point - humming along not knowing the words does sort of go along with maudlin and a few drinks. Note that singing “For the sake of Auld Lang Syne” is anaethma to purists never mind my writing ‘old’ for ‘auld’. My apologies to them - I know I’m a philistine, I just try to sing whatever the people round me sing and I probably mix in the wrong circles.
Auld Lang Syne (Old long since, times gone by) by Rabbie Burns, or at least wholly
transformed by him into what we have today.The Oxford Book of English Verse What I'd sing Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to min'?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o' lang syne?Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And days of old lang syne?CHORUS
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne.CHORUS
For old lang syne, my dear,
For old lang syne,
We'll take a cup of kindness yet,
For old lang syne.
(or maybe 'For the sake of old lang syne')We twa hae rin about the braes,
And pu'd the gowans fine;
But we've wander'd monie a weary fit
Sin' auld lang syne.
CHORUSAnd here's a hand, my trusty friend,
And give us a hand o' thine
We'll take a cup of kindness yet,
For old lang syneWe twa hae paidl't i' the burn,
Frae mornin' sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin' auld lang syne.
CHORUSCHORUS (repeat)
For old lang syne, my dear,
For old lang syne,
We'll take a cup of kindness yet,
For old lang syne.And here 's a hand, my trusty fiere,
And gie's a hand o' thine;
And we'll tak a right guid-willie waught
For auld lang syne.
CHORUSAnd surely ye'll be your pint-stowp,
And surely I'll be mine;
And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne!
CHORUSI think most versions that are reasonably
similar have this last verse either second or
second last so the 'trusty fiere' verse is last.
If you hover a mouse pointer over a line of the poem on the left a translation should appear after a second or two. But most of the links below will have a good rendition even if this doesn't work for you.
By the way my wife asked me when we were visiting Glasgow: “Is that Gaelic? Can you tell what they’re saying?”. I had to tell her they were speaking English, didn’t she know her own language? To quote Lewis Carroll:
I said it in Hebrew---I said it in Dutch---
I said it in German and Greek:
But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much)
That English is what you speak!
There's an enormous number of pages on the web about Auld Lang Syne. Here is just a small selection:
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