The Book of Scottish Song/Auld Lang Syne 2
Auld Lang Syne.
[The following is the version of "Auld Lang Syne" which Burns communicated to Johnson's Museum, and which has since become so universal a favourite. In the Museum it is marked with a Z, signifying that it is an old song with additions and alterations. In his correspondence both with Mrs. Dunlop and Mr. Thomson, Burns says that he took the song down from the singing of an old man—and we are inclined to believe this partially. The first, fourth, and fifth verses seem fragments of an old ditty: the second and third verses betray the tenderness and sentiment of the poet himself. Had Burns been the sole author of the song, we cannot see how he would have spoken with such raptures regarding it. "Light be the turf," he says, "on the breast of the heaven-inspired poet who composed this glorious fragment!"—The air to which "Auld Lang Syne" is now generally sung is not the original one, which Burns pronounced to be mediocre, but one adopted from an old Lowland melody, called "I fee'd a lad at Michaelmas," and now entitled in Gow's collection of Reels, "Sir Alexander Don's Strathspey."]
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to min'?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o' lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
We twa ha'e run about the braes,
And pu'd the gowans fine;
But we've wander'd mony a weary fit,
Sin' auld lang syne.
We twa ha'e paid'lt in the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid ha'e roar'd,
Sin' auld lang syne.
And there's a hand, my trusty frien',
And gi'e's a haud o' thine;
And we'll tak' a richt gude-willie waught,
For auld lang syne.
And surely ye'll be your pint-stoup,
And surely I'll be mine;
And we'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.