Re: Salinger & Burns (NOT George!)
Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Fri, 17 Dec 1999 16:28:02 +0000
I don't doubt for a minute you're both right.
I certainly wouldn't know.
In my mind, more or less since birth, the name
Rabbie Burns has been synonymous with the very
worst aspects of the Scots character: bleary sentimentality,
self-pity, drunken incoherence, nervous concupiscence,
envious brotherliness, a fundamental priggishness hiding
under displays of false bonhomie. And the rest.
Feeling this way, as I do, I've never managed to listen
for long enough to the words of that particular 'song'
to translate what they might actually mean into plain
English.
Perhaps one of our enthusiasts would oblige?
Scottie B.