The Book of Scottish Song/The Highland Widow

The Highland Widow.

[This pathetic lamentation was written by Burns in imitation of some Gaelic chant be had heard with the burthen "Ochon, ochon, ochrie." It is inserted in the Museum to a Gaelic air also contributed by Boms. In the Jacobite Relics, Hogg gives it with three additional verses, probably from his own pen. Of these verses, we retain one, which forms the last, except the chorus, in the present song: the other two appear to us unto injure the pathos of the piece, and we therefore leave them out.]

Oh, I'm come to the Low Countrie,
Ochon, ochon, ochrie!
Without a penny in my purse
To buy a meal to me.

It was na sae in the Highland hills,
Ochon, ochon, ochrie!
Nae woman in the country wide
Sae happy was as me!

For there I had a score o' kye,
Ochon, ochon, ochrie!
Feeding' on yon hill sae high,
And bringing milk to me.

And there I had three score o' yowes,
Ochon, ochon, ochrie!
Skipping on yon bonnie knowes,
And casting woo to me.

I was the happiest o' the clan,
Sair, sair may I repine!
For Donald was the bravest man,
And Donald he was mine.

Till Charlie he cam' o'er at last,
Sae far, to set us free;
My Donald's arm was wanting then,
For Scotland and for me.

Their waefu' fate what need I tell?
Richt to the wrang did yield;
My Donald and his country fell
Upon Culloden-field.

Now I have nocht left me ava,
Ochon, ochon, ochrie!
But bonnie orphan lad-weans twa,
To seek their bread wi' me.

Ochon, ochon, oh, Donald, oh
Ochon, ochon, ochrie!
Nae woman in this warld wide
Sae wretched now as me.

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