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Simon & Garfunkel – Scarborough Fair

Simon & Garfunkel – Wikipedia tiếng Việt

About the Song

Scarborough Fair is a haunting and enigmatic ballad that has captivated audiences for centuries. Its origins remain shrouded in mystery, with versions dating back to the 17th century. The song’s melancholic melody and cryptic lyrics have fueled countless interpretations, adding to its enduring allure.

The most recognizable version likely comes from Simon & Garfunkel’s 1967 rendition. This version features the now-famous call and response, “Are you going to Scarborough Fair?” followed by the herbal refrain, “Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.”

The lyrics themselves paint a picture of a lost love. The singer sends a message to a former lover through a visitor traveling to Scarborough Fair, a real marketplace town in North Yorkshire, England. The tasks the singer asks their former love to complete are seemingly impossible – sewing a shirt without needle and thread, finding land by the sea, and reaping it with a leather sickle. These impossible tasks can be seen as metaphors for the speaker’s own emotional turmoil and the hopelessness of rekindling the lost love.

Scarborough Fair’s enduring popularity lies in its ambiguity. The lack of specific details allows listeners to project their own experiences and emotions onto the song. The yearning for a lost love, the sense of helplessness, and the bittersweet beauty of unfulfilled desires all resonate deeply with audiences across generations and cultures.

The song’s mystique is further enhanced by the symbolism of the herbs mentioned in the refrain. While the exact meaning remains debated, some believe the herbs represent fidelity (rosemary), remembrance (sage), domesticity (parsley), and death (thyme). These interpretations add another layer of complexity to the song’s emotional core.

Scarborough Fair transcends the boundaries of a folk song. It’s a timeless exploration of love, loss, and the human desire for connection. Whether sung a cappella or accompanied by a simple guitar melody, the song continues to resonate with a primal yearning for something just out of reach.Paul Simon opens up on ending friendship with Art Garfunkel

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Lyrics: Scarborough Fair

Are you going to Scarborough Fair:
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
Remember me to one who lives there.
She once was a true love of mine.On the side of a hill in the deep forest green.
Tracing of sparrow on snow-crested brown.
Blankets and bedclothes the child of the mountain
Sleeps unaware of the clarion call.Tell her to make me a cambric shirt:
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;
Without no seams nor needle work,
Then she’ll be a true love of mine.On the side of a hill in the sprinkling of leaves.
Washes the grave with silvery tears.
A soldier cleans and polishes a gun.
Sleeps unaware of the clarion call.Tell her to find me an acre of land:
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;
Between the salt water and the sea strands,
Then she’ll be a true love of mine.

War bellows blazing in scarlet battalions.
Generals order their soldiers to kill.
And to fight for a cause they have long ago forgotten.

Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather:
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;
And gather it all in a bunch of heather,
Then she’ll be a true love of mine.

Are you going to Scarborough Fair:
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
Remember me to one who lives there.
She once was a true love of mine.

 

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Some photographs of Elvis Presley are difficult to forget, and not because of his famous smile or extraordinary looks. It is his eyes. In certain pictures, the confidence disappears and something quieter takes its place. There is warmth there, but also a distance that makes you wonder what the man behind the photograph was carrying.

Elvis Presley was the kind of handsome that photographs could capture but never completely explain. The dark hair, blue eyes, strong features and slightly crooked smile were striking enough. Yet when you watch old footage, something else becomes obvious. His face was constantly changing with the emotion of the song. One moment he looked confident and dangerous, the next almost shy, gentle and vulnerable.

When Elvis Presley appeared in the mid-1950s, popular music suddenly felt different. He did not stand politely behind a microphone or hide the rhythm in his body. He moved with the music, sang with urgency, and brought an energy that felt almost dangerous compared with the controlled style audiences were used to seeing.

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