CURRENT MOON

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Farewell To The Highlands


It's Burns' Night in Scotland, and in the heart of everyone who loves a good poem or song. Robbie Burns wrote quite a few. Here's one that i like:

My Heart's In The Highlands


1789
Type: Song
Tune: Failte na Miosg.

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,
The birth-place of Valour, the country of Worth;
Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,
The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.

Chorus.-My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;
Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.

Farewell to the mountains, high-cover'd with snow,
Farewell to the straths and green vallies below;
Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods,
Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.
My heart's in the Highlands, &c.


And, here's some spoken Robbie Burns, which is really the best way to enjoy him. He'd write a poem about anything. About a mouse or a weed he'd turned over with a plow. Or about his "illegitimate" daughter.

So raise a glass to Robbie and to poets in general. You may want to pass on the haggis, Burns' Night tradition though it may be.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Eddi Reader has made a CD of Burns songs, just beautiful. Ms Reader is a native Scot and the accent comes through.