One of Robert Burns’s finest love songs. 

This lyric was written for ‘Clarinda’, Mrs Agnes (Nancy) McLehose, whom Burns wooed and promised to marry when her dissolute and brutal estranged husband died. Burns signed himself ‘Sylvander’ in his seven years of correspondence with ‘Clarinda’. When in December 1791 Agnes decided to join her husband in Jamaica, Burns wrote and sent to her 'Ae Fond Kiss'.

But Burns died before her husband James McLehose did.

You would not know from the lyric that when Burns wrote it he was three years married to Jean Armour and had several children with her. Burns’s lyric is in part reworked from a poem 'The Parting Kiss', published by the English poet Robert Dodsley in 1749, which begins 'One kind kiss before we part, / Drop a tear and bid adieu; / Tho’ we sever, my fond heart, / Till we meet, shall pant for you.'

Ae fond kiss, and then we sever
Ae fareweel, and then forever
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee

Who shall say that Fortune grieves him
While the star of hope she leaves him?
e, nae cheerfu twinkle lights me
Dark despair around benights me

I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy
Naething could resist my Nancy
But to see her was to love her
Love but her, and love for ever

Had we never loved sae kindly
Had we never loved 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

Ae fond kiss, and then we sever
Ae fareweel, alas, forever
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee

Although Robert Burns chose the tune 'Rory Dall’s Port' for his lyric, it has since been set to various other new and old tunes.

At present, 'Ae Fond Kiss' is sung to the tune on our recording. It was made or arranged by John Michael Diack (1869-1946), who said it was 'founded on an old Scottish air', probably a Gaelic one.

Heather Yule has identified this tune as 'Mo run an diugh mar an dé thu' (My Love Today as Heretofore), which she found in the Simon Fraser Collection. She has arranged and recorded it especially for this website.

Listen to 'Ae Fond Kiss', performed by Tryst.
Recorded for Learning and Teaching Scotland for Scotland’s Songs, Gallus Recordings.

'Rory Dall's Port', played by Heather Yule
Recorded for Learning and Teaching Scotland for Scotland’s Songs.

The air 'My Love Today As Heretofore', played on the harp by Heather Yule
Recorded for Learning and Teaching Scotland for Scotland’s Songs.