A ballad firstly in French and then in Scots
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Story behind the song
When I was the resident baker at a Seminary in Ontario a fellow from Quebec came to work there in order to learn English. I was able to help him and wrote a poem in French to share with him. It was published in an Anthology in '66 and in '68 I taught baking and beginner's French at a Friends school in BC. After returning to Scotland with my daughters in '78 I translated it into Scots and had it published in a Scots magazine. And I've now composed a melody for it with piano accompaniment for the French part and fiddle and clarsach accompaniment for the Scots part.
Lyrics
La rose s’ouvre ce matin beau;
Les oiseaux chantent bien.
Le soliel brille; il fait bien chaud;
J’ai besoin de rien.
Je vois cette fleur, si douce, si belle.
Helas. Sa vie est breve.
Elle doit mourir bientot et elle
Deviendra seulment un reve.
Reve d’une rose; reve de la vie -
Il est si beau, si triste, si vrai.
Nous meme, comme cette fleur aussi,
Disparaitrons tout a fait.
(et maintenant, en Ecossais)
A bonny mornin, a rose unfaulds,
An burd-sang aw fornent:
The sin lowes brichtly owre wuids an waulds
An A am fou content.
A see thon rose, sae douce, sae braw.
Too bad it winnae last.
Short syne the blume sall dow an aw
Be flichtered on the gast.
A Dwam o a rose; a dwam o a life -
Sae bonny, true an wae.
Oorsels, like flooers are gaen sae rife
Neither seen nor mindit mae.
