The Trusty Servant

My local remainder/discount bookshop had a “sale” recently. That turned out to mean that they had a handful of books at 99p each instead of the usual £3.99 upwards. One was a complete works of Robert Burns (650pp, hardback). Having watched with interest the crowds along the Thames humming and fluffing their way through Auld Lang Syne after the New Year’s Eve midnight fireworks, I thought I would risk 99p for a copy. Bizarrely, the book has neither index nor alphabetical table of contents, so it took a while to find, but here it is:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind!
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!

Chorus:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne,

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.

For auld etc

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou’d the gowans fine;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit
Sin’ auld lang syne.

For auld etc

We twa hae paidl’d in the burn
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin’ auld lang syne.

For auld etc

And there’s a hand, my trusty fere!
And gie’s a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak’ a right gude-willie waught,
For auld lang syne.

For auld etc

Now all I have to do is find out what it means. Actually, that is a little unfair, because the book does have a 20 page glossary at the end. eg Auld, old; Syne, since, then; Lang, long. I guessed those, but it is comforting to find them.