Although to read Mr. Burns’ poetry you will oft be referring to the translations in the side notes, you are probably more familiar with his words than you may know… “The best-laid schemes of mice and men…” “My love is like a red, red rose…” "Should auld acquiantance be forgot..."
My first Burn’s Night in Scotland I was in Edinburgh in the Morningside chapel (if Sean Connery had been a Mormon he would have been in that ward…) and we had brought an investigator with us to the party so that we were there to have a good time…legally…
Everyone wore their kilts and hats and long socks and vests and drapey things and brooches, and daggers and furry purses (the sporran)… Everyone looked marvelous.
Someone stood and read the “Address to a Haggis”:
“Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the pudding-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o’ grace
An lang’s my arm.”
It goes on for 7 more stanzas...
Highlights of the poem:
“chieftain o’ the pudding race!” (keep in mind it’s a pudding of guts, spices, and oatmeal…it’s the Ghengis Khan of the pudding race…it scares all the other puddings… did I mention it’s baked in a sheep’s stomach…)
that the haggis is as long as his arm
you raise your knife and plunge it into the shiny haggis for it to burst its entrails in a “glorious sight”
the French can keep their ragout
the Italians can keep their fricassee
but give me the stout, honest fare of a good rustic haggis and thank your luck stars that you’re a Scot
and if you love your country: “wish her gratefu’ prayer, Gie her a haggis!”
you get the general idea…
And I ate haggis for the first time, and instead of eating it gone, I mixed it into my tatties (potatoes, you perverts…) and created a bust of Burns himself (that’s a sculpture, you perverts…).
And then the dancing…. You see, you know how as Americans, chances are you learned some square dancing somewhere in your education? Well the Scots learn “flingin’” or the “auld” (old) dances. As sister missionaries, we were the shoe-in partners for all the spinster ladies in the ward. They fought over us like the last spoonful of trifle, and I got plenty of coquettish smiles and winks to boot!
5 comments:
I am proud to say that I did eat Haggis and tatties tonight in honor of Bobby Burns. Tasty.
Dirty Bill
Happy Birthday, Bobby Burns! Didn't Catcher in the Rye get its title from a verse of Burn's that Holden didn't remember correctly? "When a body meet a body comin' through the rye"? Taylor reminded me of the Farside cartoon based on that...I had never "gotten" that before.
I hope you at least made yourself a trifle today. I caught 2 minutes of Teletubbies today, and the theme was ice cream. Keep in mind this is a British-made show. Two kids were making "yummy" ice cream sundaes with ice cream and JELL-O. Those 2 textures just don't mix well in my mouth, but they seemed to LOVE it. They topped it with oozy, clear gel that was red and it looked like it was coming out of a tube of toothpaste. And chocolate sprinkles. Crazy Brits. Gotta love 'em.
I was in Scotland on Thanksgiving Day 2003. While everyone in America was stuffing his face, I was running around starving, not wanting to waste a second of my time eating, because I only had 6 hours in Edinburgh. I loved it there. Before I hopped on the train that night though, I had a delicious pastie. MMMM. the memories. I also saw where Sean Connery used to pose as a nude model for the art students when he was young.
If only I had known...I could have ordered haggis at Luther's BBQ instead of brisket. Darn, maybe next year! Happy Birthday Bobby! You don't seem to be a day over 200 to me. Carrie, you take the trifle for best blogs!
Why does everyone in the world seem to be smarter than me? I've never, ever heard of Bobby Burns, I've never read Catcher in the Rye, and mom just said Carrie's blogs are her favorite. Although Sarah did mention Teletubbies and that is the kind of stuff I can relate to! Thanks for trying to bring things down to my level...
Post a Comment