This one is recorded in the The Book of Scottish Song, and is an early Jacobite Song from the first years of the reign of George I of Hanover, whose hobby was to care for his vegetable patch.
Jacobitism is the belief that the throne of the United Kingdom was unlawfully granted to George of Hanover, and that the line of succession after James II and VII of the house of Stuart was deposed in 1688. Jacobites wish to restore the original line of succession, through James' son.
All main Jacobite claimants are Catholic, and gathered support of persecuted Catholics in the United Kingdom, but also of protestants whose religious freedoms were also threatened under the Anglican monarchs.
In the picture, King James Francis Edward Stuart, the first Jacobite pretender. Song by Alastair McDonald.
Special thanks to Connor for helping me translate it!
Lyrics:
Noo wha the deil ha'e we gotten for a king,
But a wee, wee German lairdie?
And, when we gaed to bring him hame,
He was delving in his kail-yardie:
Sheughing kail, and laying leeks,
But the hose, and but the breeks;
And up his beggar duds he decks-
This wee, wee German lairdie.
And he's clapt down in our gudeman's chair,
The wee, wee German lairdie;
And he's brought fouth o' foreign leeks,
And dibbled them in his yardie.
He's pu'd the rose o' English loons,
And broken the harp o' Irish clowns;
But our thistle taps will jag his thumbs-
This wee, wee Ginnan lairdie.
Come up amang our Highland hills,
Thou wee, wee German lairdie,
And see the Stuart's lang-kail thrive
They dibbled in our yardie:
And if a stock ye dare to pu',
Or haud the yoking o' a plough,
We'll break your sceptre o'er your mou',
Thou wee bit German lairdie.
Our hills are steep, our glens are deep,
Nae fitting for a yardie;
And our Norland thistles winna pu',
Thou wee bit German lairdie:
And we've the trenching blades o' weir,
Wad prune ye o' your German gear-
We'll pass ye 'neath the claymore's shear,
Thou feckless German lairdie!
Auld Scotland, thou'rt ower caald a hole
For nursin' siecan vermin;
But the very dougs o' England's court
They bark and howl in German.
Then keep thy dibble in thy ain hand,
Thy spade but and thy yardie;
For wha the deil ha'e we gotten for a king,
But a wee, wee German lairdie?
1 окт 2024
