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Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
Ae fareweel, and then for ever!
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?
Me, 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 lov'd sae kindly,
Had we never lov'd 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! for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.

Ae fond kiss words by: Robert Burns

tune: traditional

Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.

lines 3&4 verse 1

He is pledging an oath that he will be wringing the tears out of his heart forever.

The word 'wage' combines two notions.

'wage' (a pledge or a promise - a wager)

i.e. The price I'll pay for the memory of you is ‘sighs and groans.‘

Also, the sighs and groans will be 'waging war' inside him

'Sighs' and 'groans': to an extent onomatopoeic words and two very different sounds An open 'sigh' and a closed 'groan' (you can't do the two at the same time so they are vying for position inside him (waging a war: an internal struggle)

Note the exclamation marks at the end of line 2. (It's final!) It's as if he's trying to convince himself that it is 'for ever'. Without the exclamation mark at the end of line 2, line 3 could grammatically join on to the previous line. In not doing so, each set of two lines makes much more of a statement. Because of lines 1&2, 3&4 will be the result!

Who shall say that Fortune grieves him,
While the star of hope she leaves him?
Me, nae cheerfu' twinkle lights me, nae cheerfu’ = no cheerful
Dark despair around benights me.

verse 2

(This verse is missed out when the song is sung by a woman.)

In other words:

Burns: to men in general: If there is a glimmer of hope (star) of a reunion then you are blessed and (good) fortune is still an option.

For him, there isn't. The split is forever. Therefore, he has no hope and no star twinkling in the darkness.

A picture of one star (hope) twinkling in a huge black universe. Without that twinkling star, his despair is massive, endless and infinite.

I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy: ne’er = never partial fancy = (see below)
Naething could resist my Nancy! naething = nothing
But to see her was to love her,
Love but her, and love for ever.

verse 3

(This verse is missed out when the song is sung by a woman...for obvious reasons.)

'Partial fancy' is tricky. I'm assuming that ‘partial fancy' is the opposite of an 'impartial fancy' i.e. he's totally committed and biased in his ‘fancy' for her. It's all consuming. He's 'partial' to Nancy as you would say eg. 'I'm partial to (or I love) a bit of cheese on my toast'. (not the best of examples .. answers by email to Borealis please...)

As opposed to ... he 'partly' fancies her?! Which would be inconsistent with the rest of the poem/song. (But you never know with Burns!)

But to see her was to love her,
Love but her, and love for ever.

Two glorious lines from the pen of Burns. Magical!

Had we never lov'd sae kindly, sae = so
Had we never lov'd sae blindly,
Never met - or never parted --
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.

verse 4

If we hadn't loved so tenderly, if we hadn't loved with eyes blinkered to the truth that the situation was impossible, if we had never met, or if we had met but were still together, our hearts would never have been broken.

Fare-thee-weel, thou first and fairest!
Fare-thee-weel, thou best and dearest!
Thine be ilka joy and treasure, ‘thine’ = yours ilka = every
Peace, enjoyment, love and pleasure!

verse 5

Goodbye. I wish you well.

I wish you every joy and treasure/blessing: which Burns defines as peace, enjoyment, love and pleasure.

A cheeky little exclamation mark after ‘pleasure’ hints at the ‘pleasure’ they have shared together.

Maybe not so platonic after all!

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

verse 6

A repeat of the first verse except that 'and then' is now 'alas!'

Ae fareweel, alas! for ever!

Note that many of the poem/song's vowel sounds are 'e' 'ee' 'ae' 'o'. The two 'a' vowels in the word 'alas' therefore stand out. The word 'alas!' with its exclamation mark cries out in despair! The whole song leads to that one ‘alas!’)

Also note that this Burns song doesn't rely too much on its Scottishness as far as the language used goes. The main difference would be the words: heart/hearted and parted, which should probably be sung with 'e' vowels as in 'egg'. i.e. hert, herted, perted: especially effective in verse 4 with rhyming vowels, but also rhyming throughout with: sever, forever, pledge, never, best, treasure. Again making the word 'alas' with its contrasting vowels in the final verse even more effective.

'Forever' appears as two words in the original manuscript of the song i.e. 'for ever'. It's a tiny point, but the two words again help to sing the despair in the song. It produces an effective glottal stop on 'ever' instead of a continuing 'forever'.

This song is a singer's gift. Sing it with relish. The words are seductive, fruity, heartfelt and just plain gorgeous!

I don't know much about the circumstances of this song. There are plenty of sources on the Web to find out. Written for 'Clarinda' if you want to find out more intrigue. Thought to be a platonic relationship, but perhaps a desire for more on the part of Burns .... (as usual!) Decide for yourself.

Jean Nicolson

Lines 1&2 verse 1:

Ae fond kiss, and then we sever; Ae fond kiss = one fond kiss sever = part
Ae fareweel, and then for ever! Fareweel = farewell

‘We sever’ and ‘for ever’ is an exceptionally good rhyme. 'sever' suggests a sudden, final and painful separation. But also notice the kiss is defined as 'fond' and doesn't suggest anything other than a platonic parting. (See below)

Note the alliteration 'farewell' and 'for ever'.

The consonant 'f' is prominent throughout the song. It's a good consonant to relish a vowel with! (fond, farewell, forever, fortune, fancy, fare-thee-weel, first, fairest)

Click here for an analysis/guide to ‘The banks o’ Doon’ (Ye banks and braes)

You can purchase an arrangement of

‘Ae fond kiss’ for voice and piano by

Jean Nicolson

Click here...

Ae fond kiss

... although broken hearted at the end of a relationship,

there is no sense of bitterness, only regret at love lost.

Ae fond kiss melody pdf.

Click here to view a sample of the score

Click here for an analysis/guide to ‘My love is like a red,red rose

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Again, one of Robert Burns' most well known songs.

This is not an official analysis, in depth essay or suchlike. It’s purely a guideline to maybe getting more out of the song ‘Ae fond kiss’ if you are unfamiliar with the dialect.

What I'm trying to get across is not so much a word for word translation, but more the essence of how the words feel, a few ideas about the imagery used and how the song 'sings' in the dialect in which it is written.