For years now, I have been so curious of the meaning of this song by Simon and Garfunkel that finally I did a research on the internet. It turned out, this was an old English Ballad that could date back to the 1600 and is similar to the Elfin Knight tale. So many versions have already been made to this tale that it is quite hard to know which is the original (if ever the original version could be traced).
Compared with the popular song we know today, I find this version, published in 1889, more beautiful because of the exchange of conversation between the two lovers with each one demanding some impossible task to be performed by the other. Although love for them is conditional and will greatly depend on the task being carried out, yet somehow the reader knows that the lovers will be able to perform them. And although both show hesitancy in giving their hearts to the other, yet the reader also knows that they are madly in love with each other but is just being coy and coquettish thus, making the dialogue graceful and witty.
As to Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, I have always interpreted them as representing a season of the year and that the lovers, no matter when, will always love each other. However, upon research, it turned out that none of them matched my interpretation and the one which I liked was that Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme are ingredients for a love potion and that the repetition is necessary in order for the concoction to be more stronger. The reader now then is given an image of a witch (a beautiful one I should say) in a hut chanting and dancing while mixing a potion in a big steaming cauldron.
- Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
- Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
- Remember me to one who lives there,
- For once she was a true love of mine.
- Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
- Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
- Without any seam or needlework,
- Then she shall be a true lover of mine.
- Tell her to wash it in yonder well,
- Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
- Where never spring water or rain ever fell,
- And she shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn,- Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
- Which never bore blossom since Adam was born,
- Then she shall be a true lover of mine.
Now he has asked me questions three,- Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
- I hope he'll answer as many for me
- Before he shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell him to buy me an acre of land,- Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
- Betwixt the salt water and the sea sand,
- Then he shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell him to plough it with a ram's horn,- Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
- And sow it all over with one pepper corn,
- And he shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell him to shear it with a sickle of leather,- Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
- And bind it up with a peacock feather.
- And he shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell him to thrash it on yonder wall,- Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme,
- And never let one corn of it fall,
- Then he shall be a true lover of mine.
When he has done and finished his work.- Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme:
- Oh, tell him to come and he'll have his shirt,
- And he shall be a true lover of mine.
