"Auld Lang Syne"
There will be few of us who will escape hearing this song sung at this time of year!
But when it is sung - will it be the original words or pronunciation or meaning?
Robert Burns' poem - published in 1794 -
has the five verses we have given -
although there is some argument as to the correct order.
Burns was someone who always enjoyed a good drink -
in fact his drinking hastened his own death -
but in this song he was more concerned with being drunk with the happiness of sharing memories with a childhood friend.
Need help with the translation?
How about the following!
(We won't attempt to do every word -
just the less obvious parts of each verse)
Verse 1
Should we forget our old friends
and never think of them again?
Should we forget our old friends
and the days long past?
Chorus
For days long past, my dear,
For days long past.
We will remember kindly
All those days long past
Verse 2
(This verse tries to convey the depth of memories of the two friends.
The translation is obvious, but perhaps "pint-stowp" needs a little explanation.
Stowp is a wooden measure - it can be a jug or a tankard
but it would have to be rather large as it is to hold a Scots pint
i.e. 4 Imperial pints!)
And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp!
And surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
Verse 3
We two have run about the hills
And picked the daisies fine;
But we've wandered far away from there
Since the days of long ago.
Verse 4.
We two have paddled in the stream
From dawn till dinner time
But broad seas have roared between us
Since those days of long ago.
Verse 5.
And there's a hand, my trusty brother!
And give me a hand of yours!
And we will drink right deeply
For the sake of days gone by.
And how to sing the song?
Nowadays only the first and last verses are sung -
standing in a circle without crossing hands!
It is only at the beginning of the line
"And there's a haun', my trusty fiere"
that hands are crossed to grasp
those of the people beside you!
By the way the word "fiere" is just one of those Scots words that shows the links between the language and French
"frere" - "brother".
And the pronunciation?
The word "Syne" is pronounced as it is spelt -
it starts with an "S" and not a "Z"!
You have no idea how Scots cringe when they hear all those "Zyne"s creeping in..........
If you are still at a loss as to how to pronounce
some of the other words
E-mail us
and we will see what we can do with phonetics!
The tune is interesting too.
When William Shield wrote his first opera , "Rosina" in 1782,
the overture ended with a tune that resembled bagpipes.
That tune is the one used for this song and, as William was born near the Scottish border, it is thought
that he used a traditional Scots tune he had heard as a child.
And the bagpipes he knew
would have been the Lowland pipes
- the ones worked with bellows and not the player's breath!
They have a sound not unlike the Alto Saxophone -
as used in this midi!
The tune, like many Scots tunes,
is based on a pentatonic scale.
It has been suggested that this tune is the "hidden theme"
in Elgar's "Enigma Variations -
but the composer denied this!
One final point -
we could not resist this background by
Do you remember when you were a child
blowing away the seeds from dandelion heads to
"tell the time"?
A memory from "Auld Lang Syne"!
17th December 1998
© copyright: Elizabeth Tolson 1998.
In December 1999, the song which was "Top of the Pops" in the UK
was
Sir Cliff Richard singing the Lord's Prayer to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne"!
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