To a Mouse, On Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough, by Robert Burns

There’s a reason Address to a Haggis is at the top of my Top Posts list today. Tonight is Burns Night! Here’s my favorite Robert Burns poem.

To a Mouse, On Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough

by Robert Burns

Wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty
Wi bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
Wi’ murdering pattle.

I’m truly sorry man’s dominion
Has broken Nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth born companion
An’ fellow mortal!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
‘S a sma’ request;
I’ll get a blessin wi’ the lave,
An’ never miss’t.

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!
It’s silly wa’s the win’s are strewin!
An’ naething, now, to big a new ane,
O’ foggage green!
An’ bleak December’s win’s ensuin,
Baith snell an’ keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an’ waste,
An’ weary winter comin fast,
An’ cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro’ thy cell.

That wee bit heap o’ leaves an’ stibble,
Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!
Now thou’s turned out, for a’ thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter’s sleety dribble,
An’ cranreuch cauld.

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

Still thou are blest, compared wi’ me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But och! I backward cast my e’e,
On prospects drear!
An’ forward, tho’ I canna see,
I guess an’ fear!

Here it is beautifully read for Librivox by Charles MacDonald.

There’s a translation into standard modern English on wikipedia. It’s not the translation I’m familiar with, though. Instead of “The best laid schemes of mice and men go oft awry,” it has the less rhythmic “The best laid schemes of mice and men go often askew”. I wonder if the translator thought they shouldn’t use the common expression, for clarity’s sake. Or maybe it’s something only I grew up hearing, and is not as common as I thought it was.

Anyway, happy Robert Burns Day, or Burns Night, as the case may be.

Seems like other poets ought to get holidays, too. Who would you nominate?

More poetry

Vintage Knits: Pullovers from 1975

Why, hello up there. How do you like our sweaters? Are they not as handsome as we are? But no, nothing is as handsome as we are.

I’m thinking about making one of these in the smallest size, in a slightly fluffier grayish blue. What do you think?

Here are the patterns.

     

   

More knitting patterns

Etta James: Something’s Got A Hold On Me

R.I.P. Etta James.

Helsinki in Winter

Fond memories of wintry Helsinki as snow falls on Seattle.

Photo courtesy of Helsinki City Tourist Information.

More photos

 

The March on Washington, 1963

Happy Martin Luther King Day.

My Year at the Movies 2011, Part 2

In spite of critics’ complaints about the poor quality of the film output of 2011, Rick and I had no problem finding lots of great movies to see in Seattle last year. I posted about some of them yesterday. Here are the rest.

I’ve seen Roman Holiday a couple of times on television over the years, but it was so much more fun to watch on the big screen with a crowd of like-minded fans. Roman Holiday is the perfect antidote to a princess fixation, should you or someone you know happen to suffer from one. Bored and exhausted by her duties as a princess, the hero of the film runs off for one exciting, wonderful day in Rome. The story is satisfying, the characters are quirky and delightful, and the location filming in 1950s Rome is fascinating. Here’s one of my favorite scenes.

Midnight in Paris was a fun little movie. I’m a sucker for a time travel story. The basic idea is, wouldn’t it be great to meet [insert favorite artist here] in person? I don’t think I’m as interested in meeting famous people as Woody Allen is. I’m content to enjoy their work, I guess. But it’s an entertaining movie.

I was excited when I saw the preview of The Mill and the Cross. It was uncanny how it used sets, costumes, and CGI to bring Bruegel paintings to life and give the film a look unlike any I’d seen before. For a Bruegel fan like me, it was like a game trying to notice all of the places where they snuck details of his paintings into the film. But what if you’re not a Bruegel fan? It would still be extremely interesting visually, but the story itself was a bit opaque and unsatisfying. I’m more familiar with the biblical themes than many viewers, I think, and I still found it hard to follow. Maybe I needed to know more about Dutch history.

Check out the awesome effects, though.

My Year at the Movies 2011

As I’ve mentioned before on the Chawed Rosin, Rick and I have a tradition of saving the ticket stubs whenever we go to a play or film, ride in a train or plane, or do anything that involves the issuing of tickets. Then on New Year’s Eve we take them out and reminisce about all the tickety things we’ve done over the past year.

It seems we went to a lot of movies in 2011.

The King’s Speech was worth seeing for the sets alone, and had some wonderful performances. I found the scenes of the royal family watching film of Nazi rallies and discussing it with their children very interesting. But the film was marred by an over-glorious ending. The soaring music was particularly grating in the scene of the eponymous speech. It would have been so much better to experience the speech as the British public did, unadorned, important, serious.

I knew I would enjoy The Illusionist, but was hesitant about whether an animated character wouldn’t suffer in comparison to the delightful corporeal reality of the real Jacques Tati. Turns out I needn’t have worried. The film doesn’t make any attempt to do what only Tati in person can do, and instead does what animation does best, creating a fascinating alternate world by hand, a world which is incidentally even more interesting and beautiful than the animators’ Triplets of Belleville, which I also enjoyed.

Source Code. Fun, silly, and entertaining. Jake Gyllenhaal is wonderfully believable in it. More thoughtful than most thrillers, which isn’t saying much, but you do at least have to think while you watch it. Just don’t think too much, or you’ll start thinking it doesn’t actually make any sense.

Animation: Little Monkey

A gorgeous student project by Delphine Dussoubs.

I recommend her web page. Everything she makes is so pretty.

More animation.

Cab Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers: Jumpin’ Jive

I had the good fortune to grow up in a household that had a compilation album featuring this song, so my first taste of the poetic brilliance of Cab Calloway came at an early age, and this song remains my favorite of his many wonderful tunes.

I also vividly remember seeing the Nicholas Brothers on television when I was little and marveling at their springy steps and signature split jumps, which are featured heavily in this video.

This is a clip from Stormy Weather, and the song is shortened a bit here to make room for the dancing, but if you’d like to hear it in its entirety, here is a copy of the recording I was raised on. It’s so great.

In 1993, I saw Cab Calloway perform at the Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle. When I saw his name on the program, I thought, You mean he’s still alive? He was, in fact, only 86 years old, and while he couldn’t quite dance as he used to, his clever wordplay and booming voice were still a delight. Because he started so young, playing nightclubs while he was still in his teens, he lived to become a sort of living ambassador of a lost era, a time traveler from the heyday of Harlem. He died the following year.

May we all live to be time travelers and relish it as much as he seemed to.

Happy New Year everyone!

More Cab Calloway

 

Merry Christmas

When At Last the Tired West, by Eeva Liisa Manner

A poem for the winter solstice, translated from Eeva Liisa Manner’s Kun väsynyt länsi.

When At Last the Tired West

When at last the tired west
reddens, darkens, and is laid to rest,
the ripe season poured into sky’s brimless cup,
and swords snapped in two, and books taken up,
and a murmur descends like the flutter of wings,
and things from their cages like spirits ascend
brighter and whole after rest,

a snowy steed from the war on the steppes,
wades into a field, another star on its forehead,
and with it a child: a naked soldier;
and they run over the blossoming landscape
as over the skirt of the Madonna, billowing in blue
and boundless, woven from light
and emptiness.

And the beauty of everything
is endless,
tenderness, joy, play, friendship, and peace.
And morning after glimmering morning ascends,
birds to the branches.

Matisyahu: Sunshine

Here’s a lovely song from Matisyahu‘s annual Festival of Light.

Happy Haunnukah!

SantaCon Seattle

Two years ago, I was on the bus heading home when I saw a bunch of santas standing around outside a bar, smoking. Last year, I was on the bus heading home when I saw a bunch of santas standing around outside a bar, smoking. Today, I dressed as santa and stood around outside a bar, smoking.

Rudolf Koivu Christmas Illustrations

Someday I’ll have to remember to post some of iconic Finnish illustrator Rudolf Koivu’s wonderful summer pictures, but so far I only seem to remember him at Christmas time. Here are some of his charming wintery illustrations.

More illustration

Hipsters: Russia in the 50s

We went last night to see Hipsters (Stilyagi) a film about stylin’ Russian teens in the 50s. It was a terrific musical and a fascinating window into Russian culture.

Talk about peer pressure.

I learned from a Russian friend that this song was a new wave hit in the 80s, originally performed and recorded by Nautilus Pompilius. There’s a thematic montage video of their original recording here and a live performance from 1989 here. Seeing the song performed by rockers from the Perestroika era gives a whole new layer of meaning to the film.