Song For Ye Jacobites

Pagina 502 • Engelstalige liederen

De originele tekst van dit lied, geschreven in de periode van de Jacobijnse oorlogen (1689–1692) in Schotland, was zeer anti-Jacobijns van opvatting. Robert Burns had veel sympathie voor hun zaak en herschreef het lied naar zijn huidige vorm rond 1791.

Ye Jacobites by name lend an ear, lend an ear.

Ye Jacobites by name lend an ear.

Ye Jacobites by name,

Your faults I will proclaim

Your doctrines I must blame

You shall hear, you shall hear.

Your doctrines I must blame, you shall hear.

Het refrein wordt enkel herhaald na de laatste strofe.

What's right and what is wrong, by the law, by the law?

What's right and what is wrong, by the law?

What's right and what is wrong,

By short sword or by long?

A weak arm or a strong

For to draw, for to draw?

A weak arm or a strong for to draw?

What makes heroic strife, famed afar, famed afar.

What makes heroic strife, famed afar.

What makes heroic strife,

To whet th' assassin's knife

Or hunt a parents life

With bloody war, with bloody war.

Or hunt a parents life with bloody war.

So leave your schemes alone in the state, in the state.

So leave your schemes alone in the state.

So leave your schemes alone,

Adore the rising sun,

And leave a man undone

To his fate, to his fate.

And leave a man undone to his fate.