A Red, Red Rose
Robert Burns
O my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.
So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only luve!
And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my luve,
Though it were ten thousand mile.
“A Red, Red Rose” is a poem composed by Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns. It was first published in 1794 in a collection of traditional Scottish songs set to music. Burns’s poem was inspired both by a simple Scots song he had heard in the country and by published ballads from the period. The poem has the form of a ballad and is meant to be sung aloud. It describes the speaker’s deep love for his or her beloved and promises that this love will last longer than human life and even the planet itself, remaining fresh and constant forever.
Summary
The speaker describes his or her love—meaning either the person the speaker loves or the speaker's feelings of love for that person—as being as beautiful, vivid, and fresh as a flower that has just recently bloomed. This love is as sweet as a beautiful song played by a skilled musician.
The beloved is so beautiful that the speaker loves her with a deep and strong passion—so strong, in fact, that the speaker's love will last until the oceans have become dry.
Even after the seas have evaporated and the earth has decayed, the speaker will still love the beloved. This love will endure until their own lives have ended and even until all human life has ended.
The speaker concludes by saying goodbye to the beloved—who is, the speaker reminds her, the only person the speaker loves. The speaker wishes her well during their temporary separation. The speaker reaffirms his or her faithful love by promising to return even if the journey covers a very long distance and takes a very long time.
Themes
Love and Change
“A Red, Red Rose” begins by describing the speaker’s love for a beloved with images that are beautiful but not necessarily long-lasting. The speaker then affirms, however, that his or her love will outlast human life itself. Through the speaker’s paradoxical (but passionate) claims, the poem argues that true love is both constantly renewing and completely unchangeable.
The speaker begins by describing love in terms that are beautiful but that don’t immediately suggest permanence. The first lines compare the speaker’s love to “a red, red rose.” “Luve” could refer to the beloved, the person the speaker loves. It could also refer to the speaker’s feelings for this person. Saying the beloved is like a rose “newly sprung in June” emphasizes her beauty and youth. Meanwhile, saying that the speaker’s love for her is like a new rose implies that this is a new relationship, with all the freshness and excitement of a developing romance. Of course, a rose can only be “newly sprung” for a short time; June ends after thirty days, and flowers fade quickly. If the speaker’s love is just like a new rose, maybe it won’t last very long.
The speaker then says this love is like “a melody / That’s sweetly played in tune.” But again, instruments can go out of tune, just as flowers can fade. The newness and excitement of the speaker’s love initially make it seem somewhat unstable.
Then, however, the speaker goes on to emphasize how long this love will last. The speaker uses three images to measure how long these feelings of love will last: the seas going dry, the rocks melting, and the sands of life running out. These events could only occur after eons of time, if ever. It seems now that the speaker’s love, far from lasting only as long as a flower, will actually endure longer than human life. Although these conflicting descriptions of the speaker’s love sound like a paradox, the speaker continues to insist that true love really can embody these seemingly opposite qualities of newness and permanence.
In the final stanza, the speaker bids farewell to the beloved, as if the speaker is planning to leave on a journey. The beloved doesn’t need to worry, though, because the speaker promises to return, even if the journey is “ten thousand mile[s]” long. This promise implies that, just as long stretches of time could not exhaust the speaker’s love for the beloved, a long stretch of distance cannot keep the speaker from her. And the length of this journey now seems short—just “awhile”—compared to the near-infinite time the speaker’s love will last. It seems, then, that love like the speaker’s is powerful enough to make earthly obstacles (like physical distance) feel insignificant. That is, this love is reliable and constant, but it also feels fresh and exciting enough to adapt to changed circumstances. The moment of farewell in the final stanza highlights the speaker’s core argument: love that lasts forever is also love that allows for change over time.
Theme Beauty, Youth, and Aging
Beauty, Youth, and Aging
“A Red, Red Rose” initially suggests that the speaker’s love is generated by the beloved’s youth and beauty—qualities that fade with time. The speaker then affirms, however, that these temporary qualities actually give rise to feelings that persist eternally, through aging and even through death. The poem seems to argue that beauty and youth are so powerful that they can inspire feelings that last long after these qualities themselves are gone.
The speaker begins with an image of the beloved that emphasizes her youth and beauty, suggesting a love that is enthusiastic but likely to fade with time. The speaker tells the reader that this love “like a red, red rose.” Roses are most beautiful when “newly sprung”—but this is a beauty that, by definition, cannot last. Newness ends quickly, and all flowers eventually fade—they cannot be “red, red” forever. If “my Luve” refers to the beloved, then comparing her to a rose acknowledges that she is beautiful now but that her beauty will fade over time. Or, if “my Luve” refers to the speaker’s feelings for her, then it seems that the speaker’s feelings may also fade over time.
As the poem continues, however, the speaker suggests that the impermanent qualities of youth and beauty give rise to a love that is permanent. The speaker’s love will remain constant even through aging, decay, and death. In the second stanza, the speaker affirms the beloved’s beauty—“So fair art thou”—and the speaker’s strong love for her—“So deep in luve am I.” The parallel phrases starting with "So" suggest a causal connection between the two ideas. It is because she is so beautiful, as beautiful as a rose, that the speaker’s feelings for her are so strong. They are so strong, in fact, that they will last longer than any rose. Somewhat counterintuitively, the poem claims that the speaker’s love will actually outlast the rose-like beauty that initially inspired it.
To indicate how long he or she will love the beloved, the speaker uses three images: the sea going dry, the rocks melting with the sun, and the sands of life running out. These images represent great lengths of time (it would take an eternity for these events to happen) and, crucially, also describe processes of decay. They show the natural world losing its vitality and form, in much the same way as an individual flower would. Through these images, the speaker is indirectly confronting the reality of aging and death—not just in the natural world, but also in the lives of this couple. The speaker implies that he or she will continue to love the beloved even as she ages and her beauty decays. That is, her beautiful appearance may have first inspired their love, but their love will endure even when her beauty is gone. It will last, in fact, until the sands of their lives have run out and they draw close to death.
When the speaker promises to return after a long journey, knowing the beloved will have aged in that time, the speaker reaffirms that his or her feelings will remain the same even though the beloved may grow less beautiful. The speaker concludes by bidding farewell to the beloved and promising to return to her, even if the journey is “ten thousand mile[s]” long. The beloved will likely be older, less youthful, and perhaps less beautiful by the time the speaker returns. Nevertheless, the speaker does promise to return, indicating that although the beloved may change, the speaker’s feelings will remain constant. Through the final promise, the poem indicates again that the love youthful beauty inspires need not end when youth itself ends.
붉디붉은 장미
오 내 사랑 붉디붉은 장미 같아라
6월에 갓 피어난
오 내 사랑 곡조에 맞춰
감미롭게 울리는 가락 같아라
그대 그리 아리따워, 귀여운 아가씨
내 그대 사무치게 사랑하네
그대 항상 사랑하리라, 내 사랑아
온 바다 마를 때까지
온 바다 마를 때까지, 내 사랑아
바위가 태양에 녹아 없어질 때까지
오 그대 항상 사랑하리라, 내 사랑아
생명의 모래가 흘러내리는 동안은
그러니 잘 있어 다오, 하나뿐인 내 사랑
잠시만 잘 있어 다오!
내 다시 올 테이니, 내 사랑아
그 길이 만리길이라 해도
아리따운 애인과 한동안 헤어지면서 영원한 사랑을 다짐하는 시. 스콧틀랜드 방언으로 쓰여 있어 철자가 우리가 아는 영어와 약간 다르다.
luve: love.
As fair are thou: As you are beautiful. thou art는 옛 어법으로 you are에 해당된다.
my bonnie lass: my pretty sweetheart.
So deep in luve am I: So deep I am in love. 사랑에 아주 깊게 빠져 있다.
still: always.
a' the seas gang dry: all the seas go dry.
wi' the sun: with the sun.
I will luve thee weel: I will love you well.
the sands o' life: the sands of life. 생명의 모래. 모래시계의 이미지를 도입하고 있다. 생명의 모래가 흐르는 동안이라는 건 살아 있는 동안이라는 뜻.
fare thee weel: fare you well. 작별의 인사. 요즘 식으로 하면 farewell.
mile: miles가 되어야 옳으나 awhile과 운을 맞추기 위해 mile로 썼다. 이는 시인의 특권.
로버트 번즈 Robert Burns (1759-1796)
영국 스코틀랜드 출신의 시인. 가난한 환경에서 어려운 생활을 하며 자라 민중적인 의식을 가진 시인으로 성장하였다. 자기 지방의 민담과 민요에서 풍부한 시적 영감을 얻으며 스코틀랜드 토속어의 아름답고 풍부한 어휘를 구사한 시와 노래를 많이 남겼다. 그가 수집하고 고쳐 쓴 노래만도 200여 편. 그 가운데 "Auld Lang Syne", "Afton Water" 등은 우리나라뿐 아니라 전 세계적으로 널리 불려지고 있는 인기 노래이다. 그의 민중적 사상과 시적 소재, 그리고 토착적 언어는 그를 18세기 말기에 낭만주의 시 역사의 토대를 놓는 시인으로 만들어 놓았다. "Tome O' Shanter"와 같은 시는 그의 마지막 역작.