27 January - Scots Wha Hae

boojum

Top Veteran
Today is 27 January, the birthday of Robert Burns. Scots Wha Hae was the national anthem for centuries and still may be. Haggis and single malt all around! Auld Lang Syne and so may others have come to us from a man who wrote in his own language, not English. Lift a malt to Rabbie.


 
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Added later, Rabbie and an Irishman were in a pub lifting a dram or two and fell to arguing over who was the better rhymer. As a bet the loser would have to push the winner in a wheelbarrow. The Irishman gave his rhyme and finished and turned to the great Scot, Rabbie. Rabbie heaved back and came out with,

Sweet blows the breezes through the treeses,
I'll get in, you push like bleezes.


No, I am not a Scot but I did marry into a Scots family which had emigrated from an Ayrshire "toon" just down the road from Rabbie's house in Ayr. My father-in-law was invited to read at the annual 27 January Burns Suppers where the poet's works were read, and my father-in-law's accent was perfect. He was as fine a man as I have ever met. He is missed.
 
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