Address to a Haggis
Many people find it difficult to understand the more obscure words of Rabbie Burns's poems; leading scholars of Scots literature are still convinced that he made half of them up. His odes to the haggis and to the mouse are famously mellifluous but quite hard to translate. So, in time for Burns night, I offer you this annotated guide to one of his classics, Address To A Haggis . It's not a literal interpretation, but Burns never intended this poem to be read literally. It's more than a metaphor - it is in fact, as will become clear, a prophesy. Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the puddin-race! Aboon them a' ye tak your place, Painch, tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye wordy o' a grace As lang's my arm. What few people know of Burns is that, as a contemporary of Adam Smith, he was a keen amateur economist. And in this verse, the haggis represents not the meaty goodness of leftover pieces of sheep, but the British economy. In the last line, ...