The Book of Scottish Song/The Campbell's Pibroch
The Campbell’s Pibroch.
[The first stanza by Burns, the second and third by an Amateur. The first stanza was originally adapted to the air entitled "Charles Gordon's Welcome Home."]
Out over the Forth I look'd to the north,
But what is the north or its Hielands to me?
The south nor the east bring nae ease to my breast,
The wild rocky mountains, or dark rolling sea.
But I look to the west, when I gae to my rest,
That happy my dreams and my slumbers may be,
For far in the west lives the lad I lo'e best,
The laddie that's dear to my bairnie and me.
His father he frown'd on the love of his boyhood,
And oh! his proud mother look'd cold upon me;
But he follow'd me aye to my hame in the shealing,
And the hills of Breadalbane rang wild wi' our glee.
A' the lang sunoimer day, 'mid the heather and bracken,
I joy'd in the light o' his bonnie blue e'e;
I little then thought that the wide western ocean
Would be rolling the day 'tween my laddie and me.
When we plighted our faith by the cairn on the mountain,
The deer and the roe stood bride-maidens to me;
And my bride's tyring glass was the clear crystal fountain,
What then was the warld to my laddie and me?
So I look to the west, when I gae to my rest,
That happy my dreams and my slumbers may be;
For far in the west is the lad I lo'e best,
He's seeking a hame for my bairnie and me.