Family treasures...

The last post sent me in search of my Dad's Complete Works of Robert Burns. It is a handsome volume and one that I treasure because I have so little from the Robertson side of my family. There is no publication date. The story I recall was that the book was rescued from the family home in Duntocher Road, badly damaged in the 1941 Clydebank blitz, as the Germans targeted the shipyards. My father was at sea in the Merchant Navy at the time. My grandparents were evacuated to Auchterarder (the 'Lang Toon') where they eventually settled.  The discolouration in the photo below was, according to my Dad, part of the bombing damage.

Just before 'To a mouse' there is a brief outline of the genesis of the poem...

While I was leafing through the Burn's book I came across a folded, yellowed piece of paper...  

and on the back, a letter from my Mum to Auntie Nora...

Translation: 

Dear Nora, I can't resist sending this - one of Jane's letters to you - executed early this morning. According to Mum [my Nana] all it adds up to is "How are you Nora and how is Smutty?" (the dog). The sooner she gets to school and learns to write the better I'll like it. 

Wee creatures...

I defy anyone who has read Charlotte's Web to wantonly destroy a spider's home! As a consequence my house is covered in spiderwebs, inside and out. I blame much of my childhood reading for my reluctance to deal to small invaders. So it was that, when I read  Deb's lovely post  http://backyardspectator.blogspot.co.nz/ quoting Robert Frost's poem The Empty Nest, I immediately thought of my father and the copy of Robbie Burn's poetry that survived the Second World War bombing of my grandparents' home in Clydebank, Glasgow. In particular I thought of the poem whose openings lines my dad would quote... [go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_a_Mouse if you want an English translation]. I reread the poem and cried.

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

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!

Robert Burns