[lit-ideas] Re: Counter-Suggestion
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 09:21:54 EDT
Bairn born in barn and burn
bairn, North. Eng. and Scot., 'child', from 'bear'.
In a message dated 6/8/2009 10:06:17 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
From earliest times--between the hours of midnight and five a.m.--all
Scottish babies (bairns) are birthed in burns (streams), this being a
fabulously cheap way of keeping anesthesia costs low and everything clean.
David Ritchie,
not confused at all
----
This is so excellent. I had forgotten about the 'burn'.
Indeed, seeing that Geary's mother was partly Scots, partly Irish, she was
possibly in the know. Again, in 'Pons Asinorum' I wonder the strategy of a
barn having no door. I'm trying to provide a short-circuit implicature for
Momma Geary's remark,
Were you born in a barn? +> You have the brains
of an ass (pons asinorum)
who, while walking in a
straight line naturally,
won't use his anterior limbs
or posterior limbs to
get to the building
once inside, hence the
manufacturer's necessity
of building barns without
doors.
-----
'bairn' and 'burn' are _so_ deligthtful. Must say I learned them first
from a Tyneside so-called folk song -- Northumberland: it's very confusing
that the Humber is miles south.
I have it in a CD of Michael Tippett's songs:
www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=16482
Dorian pastoral mode, Cminor
Cm Ab
The sheep's in the meadows, the kye's in the corn,
Cm Gm
Thou's ower lang in thy bed, bonny at morn.
Refrain: Canny at night, bonny at morn,
Thou's ower lang in they bed,
Bonny at morn.
II
The bird's in the nest, the trout's in the burn,
Thou hinders thy mother in many a turn.
Refrain: Canny at night, bonny at morn,
Thou's ower lang in they bed,
Bonny at morn.
III
We're all laid idle wi' keeping the bairn,
The lad winnot work and the lass winnot lairn.
Refrain: Canny at night, bonny at morn,
Thou's ower lang in they bed,
Bonny at morn.
I remember discussing the 'the lad winnot work and the lass winnot lairn'
in the English Center for Tradition, ECTAL, Dialect-List, Sheffield-, and
they were pretty fascinated with the 'winnot'. I love the rhyme, 'bairn'
with 'lairn'.
Such a sweet song. I taught to a group of Argentines, for a musical
evening of English folksong, which was a _success_!
I love the refined element that it's trout in the burn.
-- cfr. the 'fish are jumpin'' in summertime.
Cheers,
JL Speranza
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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