Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 13 on 25/3/2004.

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A legacy that grows with each year

Roddy Martine talks...

Amatter of days before the New Year bells, I received an urgent e-mail from Manhattan. Liz Smith, columnist on the New York Post, was asking for a translation for “pint-stowp” and “a right gude willie waught”, both expression’s to be found in Robert Burn’s immortal Auld Lang Syne. It started me thinking just how big an influence Scotland’s national bard commands around the world, not just at Hogmanay, or on the night of the 25th January when we celebrate his birthday, but throughout each and every year since his death in 1796.

His name crops up in the most unexpected places – a bar named after him in Tenerife, a whisky shop in Tokyo, at a seminar in Alberta. His audiences are legion. Such is his worldwide following, that two years ago saw the launch in May of an annual Burns Festival in and around
his birthplace in South Ayrshire.

His words resonate throughout Scottish life, so much so that A Man’s A Man for a’ that was chosen as pivotal point of the 1999 opening of Scotland’s parliament.

What I find astonishing – and humbling – about such legendary figures is how young they were when they died, having achieved so much in their short lives.

Rabbie was only 37. But what an amazing body of work he left behind him – the classic love songs, the political polemics, the canny observations on human foibles.

I have never found verse to match the likes of Tam O’Shanter or Scot’s wha hae or Ae Fond Kiss. And he still found the time to father at least the 14 children that we know .....

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By Roddy Martine

Section : Roddy Martine's World

Page number : 7