The Spaewife
by
O, I wad like to ken – to the beggar-wife says I –
Why chops are guid to brander and nane sae guid to fry.
An’ siller, that’s sae braw to keep, is brawer still to
gi’e.
– IT’S GEY AN’ EASY SPIERIN’, says the beggar-wife to me.
O, I wad like to ken – to the beggar-wife says I –
Hoo a’ things come to be whaur we find them when we try,
The lasses in their claes an’ the fishes in the sea.
– IT’S GEY AN’ EASY SPIERIN’, says the beggar-wife to me.
O, I wad like to ken – to the beggar-wife says I –
Why lads are a’ to sell an’ lasses a’ to buy;
An’ naebody for dacency but barely twa or three
– IT’S GEY AN’ EASY SPIERIN’, says the beggar-wife to me.
O, I wad like to ken – to the beggar-wife says I –
Gin death’s as shure to men as killin’ is to kye,
Why God has filled the yearth sae fu’ o’ tasty things to
pree.
– IT’S GEY AN’ EASY SPIERIN’, says the beggar-wife to me.
O, I wad like to ken – to the beggar wife says I –
The reason o’ the cause an’ the wherefore o’ the why,
Wi’ mony anither riddle brings the tear into my e’e.
– IT’S GEY AN’ EASY SPIERIN’, says the beggar-wife to me.
FOOTNOTE:
TABLE OF COMMON SCOTTISH VOWEL SOUNDS
ae }
ae } = open A as in rare.
a’ }
au } = AW as in law
aw }
ea = open E as in mere, but this with exceptions, as
heather = heather, wean=wain, lear=lair.
ee }
ei } = open E as in mere.
ie }
oa = open O as in more.
ou = doubled O as in poor.
ow = OW as in bower.
u = doubled O as in poor.
ui or u-umlaut before R = (say roughly) open A as in
rare.
ui or u-umlaut before any other consonant = (say roughly)
close I as in grin.
y = open I as in kite.
i = pretty nearly what you please, much as in English,
Heaven guide the reader through that labyrinth! But in Scots
it dodges usually from the short I, as in grin, to the open E,
as in mere. Find the blind, I may remark, are prounced to
rhyme with the preterite of grin.