Kilmeny, Kilmeny, where have you been?
Lang hae we sought baith holt and dean;
By burn, by ford, by greenwood tree,
Yet you are halesome and fair to see.
Kilmeny look'd up wi' lovely grace,
But nae smile was seen on Kilmeny's face;
As still was her look, and as still was her e'e,
As the stillness that lay on the emerant lea,
Or the mist that sleeps on a waveless sea
Kilmeny had been where the cock never crew,
Where the rain never fell, and the wind never blew.
But it seemed as the harp of the sky had rung,
And the airs of heaven played round her tongue,
When she spoke of the lovely forms she had seen,
And a land where sin had never been;
A land of love and a land of light,
Withouten sun, or moon, or night
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Where the river swa'd a living stream,
And the light a pure and cloudless beam;
The land of vision, it would seem,
A still, an everlasting dream.
Kilmeny,
Yet you are halesome and fair to see,
Kilmeny, Kilmeny where have you been?
To a land that no mortal has ever seen
Kilmeny, Kilmeny, where have you been?
Lang hae we sought baith holt and dean;
By burn, by ford, by greenwood tree,
Yet you are halesome and fair to see.
Kilmeny look'd up wi' lovely grace,
But nae smile was seen on Kilmeny's face,
As still was her look, and as still was her e'e,
As the stillness that lay on the emerant lea,
Or the mist that sleeps on a waveless sea