Tras-scríbhinn

A Róisín, ná bíodh brón ort ná cás anois,
Tá do phardún ón Róimh is ón bPápa agat,
Thá na bráithre ag teacht thar sáile is ag triall thar muir,
Is ní ceilfear fíon Spáinneach ar mo Róisín Dubh.

Tá grá agam im lár duit le bliain anois,
Grá cráite, grá cásmhar, grá ciapaithe,
Grá do dh'fhág mé gan sláinte, gan rian, gan rioth,
Is go brách brách gan aon fháil agam ar mo Róisín Dubh.

Beidh an fharraige 'na tuilte dearga is an spéir 'na fuil,
Beidh gach gleann sléibhe ar fuaid Éireann is móinte ar crioth,
Beidh an saol 'na cogadh caorach dhe dhroim na gcnoc,
Lá éigin sula n-éagfaidh mo Róisín Dubh.

Aistriúchán

Róisín, don't be filled with sorrow or regret,
You have your pardon from Rome and from the Pope,
The brethren are crossing the sea and journeying the ocean,
And Spanish wine will not be denied to my Dark Róisín.

I have love in my heart for you for the past year,
An aching love, a regretful love, a suffering love,
A love that has sapped my health and vigour,
And I am for ever and ever without my Dark Róisín.

The sea will flood red and the sky will be like blood,
Every mountain glen and moor in Ireland will shake,
The world will be at blazing war from the mountainsides,
Someday before my Dark Róisín dies.

Tráchtaireacht

D'fhéadfaí a áitiú gurb é 'Róisín Dubh' an t-amhrán Gaeilge is mó a bhfuil gean an phobail air. Faoi mar a scríobh George Petrie (1790-1866): "In the entire range of Irish melodies there is perhaps scarcely one of more widely spread popularity amongst the Irish peasantry than the air called 'Róis Geal Dubh', and sometimes 'Róisín Dubh'". Féach The Petrie collection of the ancient music of Ireland (BÁC, 1855), 125-8. Ghearán an scoláire Gaeilge Eoghan Ó Comhraí, fear a raibh Petrie faoina chomaoin sa phlé a rinne sé ar an amhrán, go raibh na leaganacha den amhrán a d'fhoilsigh James Clarence Mangan in John O'Daly, Poets and poetry of Munster (BÁC, 1849), 257, 261, agus James Hardiman in Irish minstrelsy (London, 1831), 351, 'equally corrupted by interpolations from other songs, with a view to give them a political bearing, and to convert poor Róisín Dubh into an allegorical personification of unhappy Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth.' Murab ionann agus na leaganacha sin, is cosúil go bhfuil an leagan a d'fhoilsigh Petrie gan tagairtí fáthchiallacha agus seans, dá bhrí sin, go bhfuil sé níos gaire don bhunamhrán grá.

Tá go leor leaganacha den amhrán seo le fáil ar fud na hÉireann agus cantar é le foinn éagsúla. D'fhoilsigh Edward Bunting (1773-1843) dhá chóiriú den fhonn in The ancient music of Ireland (London, 1840), 16-17. Is é an fonn a úsáideann Sean Ó Droma sa taifeadadh seo an leagan de 'Róisín Dubh' is mó a aithnítear go coitianta agus is mó a bhfuil gean ag an bpobal air, ós é sin an leagan a chuir Seán Ó Riada in oiriúint do scannán George Morrison Mise Éire (Gael-Linn, 1959).