This is my own translation to keep the rhyme and meter. It is not considered acceptable to transliterate Scots songs in this way. This is a pity, because many much older songs are now completely incomprehensible even to educated modern Scots.
O the broom, the bonnie bonnie broom, the broom o' the Cowdenknowes!
So sweetly did the lassie sing in the sheepfold milking the ewes
"O I've been east, and I've been west, and far o'er the hillsides too
But the fairest lass that ever I saw is right here milking the ewes!"
O the broom, the bonnie bonnie broom!
She set the milk-pail upon her head, and she's gone singing home.
"O where has my only daughter been? Have you not been alone?"
"O woe be to your shepherd, father, and an ill death may he see,
He built the fold on the far hillside, and a dog-fox frightened me!"
O the broom, the bonnie bonnie broom!
It fell on a day, a hot summer day, she was calling the cows to grass
There came a troop of gentlemen a-riding merrily past
"Don't blush and turn away, bonnie lass! Don't you remember me?
Don't you recall that misty night I lay in the fold with thee?"
O the broom, the bonnie bonnie broom!
Down he's leapt from his berry-brown steed and he's set her in his saddle
"Your father must milk his own ewes now, and call out his own cattle!
For I am the lord of the Oakland Hills, I have thirty ploughs and three
And now I have the bonniest bride in all the south country!"
O the broom, the bonnie bonnie broom!
Copyright David Kilpatrick 1999 - may be used without fee if acknowledged