The Fox, the Wolf and the Carter Five Fables


The Fox, the Wolf and the Carter

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At the end of the 15th century,

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a Scottish notary and teacher called Robert Henryson

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writes a series of animal fables based on the old stories of Aesop.

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Esope myne authour makis mentioun

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of twa myis and thay wer sisteris deir.

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Henryson is little known these days, but experts consider him a master.

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He is the greatest poet, I think, of the 15th century in English or Scots.

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Fast-forward over 500 years

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and Nobel prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney catches a glimpse

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of an early manuscript of the fables and is spellbound.

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It had a little rooster on the top right-hand corner of the manuscript.

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The rooster was crowing and there was something so jaunty about it.

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Over several years,

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Seamus creates a series of modern English translations,

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infused with the language of his rural childhood in Northern Ireland.

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It's absolutely brilliant. It's a wonderful translation.

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And he persuades Scottish actor and comedy legend

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Billy Connolly to record them.

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This country mouse, when winter came, endured cold and hunger.

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I think he's amazing. His reputation swells before him.

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Now, five of these fables have been animated for a project

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that Seamus Heaney was working on at the time of his death,

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bringing a modern dimension to tales that were written

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over half a millennium ago,

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with a specially-composed score by international pianist

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and conductor, Barry Douglas.

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This is a very major thing for me.

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It's a new departure and I'm very excited.

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In a moment, the full animated story of The Fox, The Wolf And The Carter

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with an introduction by Seamus Heaney himself

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and, later, some revealing behind-the-scenes footage

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of how these morality tales made it to the screen.

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Five medieval fables are now ready for their second coming.

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The Middle Ages were a time

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when the old tradition was still thriving

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and, among the characters in that tradition,

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one of the most popular,

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maybe THE most popular, was Reynard The Fox, the sly fox.

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Also, the cruel wolf.

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And, in the fable about the fox, the wolf and the carter,

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the fox comes out in his old colours as the sly one, the cunning one.

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And, oddly enough, the wolf ends up as the one who is duped at the end.

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The plot begins with the wolf, savage, dangerous,

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roaming the countryside and the fox meets the wolf

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and the wolf decides he needs him as a servant.

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Anyway, it's the season of Lent, when they are meant to be fasting

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and eating fish only.

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And they have no fish until, behold,

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a man with a cartload of fish comes down along the road.

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And, by pretending he's dead,

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the fox manages to get up on top of the load

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and starts to drop out fish for the wolf coming behind,

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until he is spotted, of course, and then he flees.

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And he tricks the wolf into going back for more,

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because he tells him a lie about seeing a huge salmon

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and the wolf gets a terrible beating from the carter

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and the fox goes off free.

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So, at the end, you have the situation reversed.

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The fox is the one who is in charge and the wolf is beaten.

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Once upon a time, in a wilderness, according to the author of my tale,

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there lived a wolf, a reiver ravenous.

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Around field and fold, freebooting in great style,

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killing, culling, plundering at will.

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Showing no fear or favour, he rampaged.

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The strong weren't spared. The weaker ones were savaged.

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One day, when he was on his usual hunt

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He chanced to meet a fox upon the way.

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But fox had spied him and, as was his wont,

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dissembled, acted scared. Bowed. Bade good day.

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"Well met," said he, "Friend wolf." Then, down he lay.

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And wolf falls for it, reaches out his hand

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And says, "Sir fox! Come now. Stop cringing. Stand!

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"Where have you been these ages from my sight?

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"We must link up. You be my agent.

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"Be my hen-snatcher, my roost-raider by night.

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"Creep into coops. Go on a fowling spree."

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"O, sir," said fox, "that's not a job for me.

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"You know what happens. The minute I appear,

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"There's panic in each henhouse, pen and byre."

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"No," cries the wolf. "Not so. For you can creep

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"Low on your knees and nab hens by the head,

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"Can make a sudden tackle on a sheep,

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"Then shake and rake and rack him, till he's dead."

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"Sir," says the fox, "You know my coat is red

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"And so well-watched, in spite of all my cunning,

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"there's not a beast now doesn't see me coming."

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"Still," said the wolf, "By brakes and braes you wend

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"And slink along and steal up on your prey."

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"Sir," said the fox, "you know how these things end.

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"They catch my scent downwind, from far away

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"And scatter fast and leave me in dismay.

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"They could be lying sleeping in a field

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"But once I'm close, they're off. It puts me wild."

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"But", cried the wolf, "You can come down upwind.

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"For every trick, they work, you have a wile."

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"Sir," said the fox, "No beast that isn't blind

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"But could escape from me by many a mile.

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"How can I fend when all my old schemes fail?

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"These pointed ears! These two grey eyes! I'm known.

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"Before I'm seen at all, my cover's gone."

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"Oh," cried the wolf, "I fear you tell a lie.

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"You weave and dodge to keep your secrets safe.

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"You beat about the bush. You're far too sly.

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"But nothing you can say will put me off.

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"Lies and false trails won't give you the last laugh

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"So listen well to what I'm saying to you,

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"do what you're bid. Obey, before you're made to."

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"Sir," said the fox, "It's Lent, you understand,

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"And I can't fish. I dare not wet my feet.

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"I'm starved for a stickleback, for here on land

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"There's not a thing that you or I can eat.

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"But, when Easter comes, when red meat and white meat

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"fall off the bone, when kid and lamb and hen

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"turn on the spits, I'll be your agent, then."

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"So," said the wolf, in rage, "You think you can

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"get round me still? Am I wet behind the ears?

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"I'm far too old for all this carry-on.

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"Where do you think I've been these 30 years?"

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"Sir," said the fox, "For God's sake, calm your fears.

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"You're so far wrong, you don't make any sense:

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"I could hang myself to prove my innocence.

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"But now I see how foolish I have been.

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"No man should ever argue with his boss.

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"I was playing games. In no way did I mean

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"to give offence. So, please, sir, don't be cross.

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"I'm at your service now and will take orders,

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"at any time, wherever, night or day."

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"Well," cried the wolf, "I like well what you say,

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"but, even so, you'll have to swear an oath,

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"to be true to me and put me always first."

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"Fie," cried the fox, "What's this? You doubt my faith?

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"Your suspicions are an insult. I protest!

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"And yet, all right, to set your mind at rest,

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"I swear by Jupiter, on pain of death,

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"I'll keep my word to you while I draw breath."

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With that a carter, with his cart and creels,

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came rattling along and fox took note.

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A whiff of herring hit him in the nostrils

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And he whispers to the wolf, "Can you smell that?

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"It's herring that your man has in that cart

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"and my advice is this - we study ways

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"to lay in fish to tide us through fast days.

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"Now I'm your agent, I have to find supplies,

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"but you don't have two brass pence to rub together.

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"And if I begged and went down on my knees

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"On all fours here before him in the gutter,

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"yon eejit wouldn't hand one herring over.

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"But still, no matter, wait a while and see.

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"I'll put one over on him, presently.

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"The thing is this - if we're to rip him off,

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"you'll have to lend a hand and take a chance

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"For the man who's not prepared to make a move

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"to help himself, I must discountenance.

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"I intend to go to work now all at once.

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"All you need do is walk behind the cart

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"and lift the herring. Thus, each will play his part."

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With that he made a far, free-ranging detour,

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Then stretched out in the middle of the road

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Pretending to be dead and making sure

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he looked it, that the whites of his eyes showed

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like one who'd perished there for want of food.

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His tongue lolled out, a hand's breadth from his head,

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as he lay stiff and still. Perfectly dead.

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The carter found the fox and he was glad,

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Boasting to himself what he would do...

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"At the next stop, I'll have the fellow flayed

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"And fox-skin mittens cut." Then, heel and toe,

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he danced a dance as lightsome as a doe,

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as if he'd heard a piper playing reels.

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Then, paused and gazed and hunkered on his heels.

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"Here lies", he said, "The devil in the ditch.

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"I've never seen the like of it before.

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"Some mongrel mangled you and made dispatch

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"and sank you in that sleep, where you don't snore.

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"So, Sir Fox, you are all the welcomer.

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"Some housewife's curse, some malison, I fear.

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"For raiding roosts has lighted on you here.

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"No pedlar's going to purchase you. Your pelt

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"won't make him gloves or trimmings or a purse.

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"I'm going to keep a hold of it myself

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"and cut and sew it into hand-warmers.

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"It won't be shipped across the sea to Flanders."

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And there and then, he grabbed the fox's heels

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And landed him high up among the creels.

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Then, cheerfully, he takes the horse's head.

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The wily fox takes heed and has begun,

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to bite the plug and loosen and unload

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herring from the creel-mouth, one by one.

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A shoal of them, a fish-slide, pouring down.

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The wolf keeps close and gathers them at speed.

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The carter sings, "Halloo," right long and loud.

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But at a burn, he turns and looks about.

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The fox leaps clear and legs it from the creels.

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The carter would have hit a deadly clout,

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but fox has shown a clean pair of heels

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and headed for his den. Then carter howls:

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"A gutting, I'll give you, a herring-treat,

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"a second helping that you'll not forget."

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"Be damned," the fox said, "For we'll never meet.

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"I heard you planning how you'd use my skin.

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"Your hands will never feel those mittens' heat.

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"God's curse you, hellion, you and all your kin.

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"Go sell your goods. I won't be in the bargain.

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"Sell herring at the highest price you can -

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"Whatever herring's left. Farewell, fishman!"

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The carter shook with anger where he stood.

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"It serves me right," he said, "I missed the cur.

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"I should have had a staff of seasoned wood,

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"to hammer him and break his sleekit shoulder."

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With that, he faced the ditch and vaulted over

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and hacked himself a staff and dressed it clean,

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A heavy, hard, straight stick of holly green.

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Off went the fox, then, to his boss accomplice

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and found him by the herring, standing guard.

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"Sir," said the fox, "Can I not pierce defences

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"stylishly and well? It is always hard

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"to keep a brave man from his just reward."

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The wolf agreed. He said, "I do confess,

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"you're ever capable and brave and wise.

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"But what", he went on, "Was that idiot shouting,

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"when he hunted you and howled and shook his fist?"

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"Sir," said the fox, "his words are worth repeating.

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"A herring treat, he mocked me, I had missed.

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"A second helping that I'd never taste."

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"And was there such a treat?" "There was. I'd caught it

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"But it weighed too much and nearly tore my teeth out.

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"But truly, boss, if we could land that catch,

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"it would see us through our 40 days of fast."

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Then wolf said, "I will risk it. We must fetch

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"that Lent-feed here. My strong teeth can lay waste

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"to herring-bone and basket-work, I trust."

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"Indeed," the fox replied, "I often wished

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"for your bite and brawn, to help me raise that fish.

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"It's like a side of salmon, more or less,

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"shiny as a partridge eye and luscious.

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"Worth more than all those herring on the grass,

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"three times as tasty, three times more precious."

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"Then," cried the wolf, "Advise me on my course."

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"Sir," said the fox, "Keep strictly to my plan

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"and, all being well, we will outwit our man.

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"First you must make a far, free-ranging detour,

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"Then stretch down in the middle of the road,

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"with head and feet and tail out, making sure

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"your tongue is lolling and your two eyes closed.

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"Then, find a hard support to hold your head

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"And ignoring every threat that may appear,

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"stay motionless until the coof comes near.

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"And though you see a staff, continue quiet.

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"Don't move a muscle and don't be afraid.

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"Keep eyes tight closed, as though they'd been put out.

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"Don't shrink at knee or neck or foot or head.

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"That carter clown will imagine you are dead

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"and quickly lug and lift you by the heels,

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"as he did me, and fling you on the creels."

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"But wait," the wolf says, "For as sure as God,

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"I'll be too weighty for the coof to lift."

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"Sir," said the fox, "He is a hefty bawd.

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"One heave and you'll be high and dry aloft.

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"But this much I can guarantee you -

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"if you haul that herring safely out of there,

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"You needn't fish again till Lent next year.

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"I now say, in principio and pray,

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"a blessing on your body, head to toe.

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"Which means, henceforth, you travel on your way,

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"protected against death. God speed you. Go!"

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Up springs the wolf, then, and away out through

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the gaps and gates, detouring to avoid

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the fishman coming up along the road.

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He makes a sturdy pillow of a stone,

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then stretches out his four feet and his head,

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lets his tongue loll and settles himself down,

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just as the fox instructed, to feign dead.

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He's over any fear he might have had.

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The only thing he thinks is, "Herring-treat."

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The last thing on his mind is fox deceit.

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Along the carter comes, then, riding high,

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now that the load is lighter.

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In a rage that fox had fooled him and had got away,

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Mad to his get own back. At which stage,

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the wolf comes into view, at his old dodge,

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stiffly stretched in the middle of the road.

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The carter - you'll have guessed - jumps off the load.

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Under his breath, he swears, "I was tricked once.

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"Be damned if I am going to be again.

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"The hammering I'll give you in your bones,

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"your friend should have been given first time round."

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With that, he lifts the holly in his hand

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And comes down with such force upon his head,

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the wolf convulsed and very nearly died.

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Three blows he bore before he found his feet

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And though he still was strong enough to flee,

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the blows had blinded him. He had been hit so hard

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he hardly saw the light of day.

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The fox, who watched it all from where he lay,

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laughed long and loud at wolf-who-would-be-boss,

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brought to his knees, two-double, in collapse.

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Thus, one who's not content with what's enough,

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but covets all deserves to forfeit all.

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The fox, when he saw the sad rout of the wolf,

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thought, "Herring-treat!" And, then, "A bellyful!"

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It takes, you will agree, both neck and skill,

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to teach a boss what's honour among thieves.

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The fox secures his herring hoard and leaves.

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The wolf was lucky to escape alive.

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He had been so unmercifully beaten.

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He limped and could no longer roam nor reive.

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The fox slipped off downwind back to his den,

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Glad to have duped his master and the man.

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The one was missing herring from his creels,

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the other losing ground, blood to the heels.

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As a child, they couldn't keep me from wells

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and old pumps with buckets and windlasses.

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I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells of water weed,

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fungus and dank moss.

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I heard Seamus Heaney in an interview once

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describe his childhood in Bellaghy

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as being almost medieval.

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He speaks about going to the pump to pump water,

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watching his father plough the fields with horses and his early poetry

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is littered with that rural environment that shaped him.

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When you dragged out long roots from the soft mulch,

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a white face hovered over the bottom.

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Seamus's background, the farming background,

0:19:010:19:04

means he's very firmly localised in an agricultural kind of context,

0:19:040:19:08

in the same way that Henryson

0:19:080:19:10

or, for that matter, Burns were, of course.

0:19:100:19:12

He certainly belongs to that whole tradition

0:19:120:19:14

and always felt that he was.

0:19:140:19:16

And he constantly stresses that the way he saw poetry was influenced

0:19:160:19:22

by that commonsensical, grounded background that he came out of.

0:19:220:19:26

But it was always there. The background was always there,

0:19:260:19:29

in the same way that it's always there for Henryson.

0:19:290:19:32

So, I think he appreciates in Henryson that capacity

0:19:320:19:36

to write the parish, write about the local, as a way of dealing

0:19:360:19:40

with these huge universal themes of morality, justice, of greed,

0:19:400:19:44

of charity and that's also an important aim of Heaney's work.

0:19:440:19:48

And they even said that you could take the man from the bog,

0:19:480:19:51

but you couldn't take the bog from the man.

0:19:510:19:54

And maybe you couldn't take the bog from the man

0:19:540:19:57

because he remembered it with such affection.

0:19:570:19:59

The American poet Robert Frost had a phrase called

0:19:590:20:03

the sound of sense, which was not accent, but more cadence,

0:20:030:20:07

rhythm, the contours of your speech.

0:20:070:20:11

What he means is that, for getting the full sense of something,

0:20:110:20:14

the way it is expressed, the sound in which it is expressed,

0:20:140:20:17

is crucial to the meaning of it, as well.

0:20:170:20:19

And Henryson's sound of sense

0:20:190:20:23

is something I was familiar with, I think.

0:20:230:20:25

Then, heel and toe,

0:20:250:20:27

he danced a dance, as lightsome as a doe,

0:20:270:20:29

as if he'd heard a piper playing reels,

0:20:290:20:32

then paused and gazed and hunkered on his heels.

0:20:320:20:35

I did it, on the whole, fairly fast.

0:20:370:20:39

I mean, not all at once - on and off.

0:20:390:20:42

But I went and hid myself for two or three days

0:20:420:20:44

and got into the swing of the rhymes and so on and I was able to

0:20:440:20:48

use words that I hadn't used

0:20:480:20:52

or even heard since I was a lad.

0:20:520:20:55

Like "heckling", "scutching" and so on.

0:20:550:20:59

Things like that were like little hooks to hang the whole thing on.

0:21:000:21:05

The flax grew ripe, the farmer pulled it green,

0:21:050:21:08

combed and dressed the seed-heads, stooked the beets,

0:21:080:21:12

then buried it and steeped it in the burn.

0:21:120:21:14

Spread and dried it, beetled the stalks to bits

0:21:140:21:18

and scutched and heckled all to tow in plaits.

0:21:180:21:22

His wife then spun a linen thread from it

0:21:220:21:25

which the fowler took and wove into a net.

0:21:250:21:28

And this, of course, is the terminology of flax farming.

0:21:280:21:31

Still, you know, words like "stooked the beets", "beetled the stalks"

0:21:310:21:35

and so on. You have to know that language to see what is being

0:21:350:21:38

described and, of course, they're the same words.

0:21:380:21:40

They are, word for word, the same ones that Henryson is using

0:21:400:21:43

the late 15th century.

0:21:430:21:45

The lynt ryipit, the carll pullit the lyne,

0:21:450:21:49

rippillit the bollis and in beitis set,

0:21:490:21:53

it steipit in the burne and dryit syne.

0:21:530:21:57

Henryson writes in Scots,

0:21:570:22:00

but it's the same language as Ulster Scots, really, and,

0:22:000:22:03

of course, Seamus Heaney is the great exemplar

0:22:030:22:06

of the poetic virtues of Ulster Scots.

0:22:060:22:08

In the case of Henryson, of course, he has got carte blanche to pay

0:22:100:22:15

homage to Ulster Scots and I think that was part of the attraction.

0:22:150:22:18

But, at a burn, he turns and looks about,

0:22:180:22:22

the fox leaps clear and legs it from the creels.

0:22:220:22:25

This is not just a totally mainstream translation into English.

0:22:250:22:29

This is an English translation

0:22:290:22:31

with these wonderful Ulster Scotsisms here and there,

0:22:310:22:34

which add to the humour and to the profundity.

0:22:340:22:37

You know, he doesn't use Ulster Scots just for a laugh,

0:22:370:22:39

so to speak, though that is one of the important functions of it.

0:22:390:22:43

The carter shook with anger where he stood.

0:22:430:22:46

"It serves me right," he said, "I missed the cur.

0:22:460:22:50

"I should have had a staff of seasoned wood

0:22:500:22:52

"to hammer him and break his sleekit shoulder."

0:22:520:22:55

The one that caught my attention is the word "sleekit",

0:22:550:22:57

which is my most favourite Scottish word. Sleekit,

0:22:570:23:02

meaning sly and untrustworthy. Sleek, oily to the touch.

0:23:020:23:08

Sleekit. I've accused many people of it. Many politicians.

0:23:080:23:11

I'd say, "I wouldn't vote for him. He's got sleekit eyes."

0:23:110:23:14

"A gutting I'll give you, a herring treat,

0:23:140:23:16

"a second helping that you'll not forget."

0:23:160:23:19

He's a wonderful translator.

0:23:190:23:21

He's got that extraordinary gift of being able to represent

0:23:210:23:25

the original, giving the full value to the original,

0:23:250:23:28

and also have it in his own voice and that's a real art.

0:23:280:23:32

"God curse you, hellion, you and all your kin.

0:23:320:23:35

"Go sell your goods. I won't be in the bargain.

0:23:350:23:38

"Sell herring at the highest price you can -

0:23:380:23:40

"whatever herring's left."

0:23:400:23:42

In the case of Henryson,

0:23:420:23:44

Heaney is recovering a poet little known

0:23:440:23:47

and, outside Scotland, very rarely taught.

0:23:470:23:51

So, he's recuperating a voice, in an attempt to reanimate

0:23:510:23:54

medieval literature, particularly.

0:23:540:23:56

And the form of the piece allows us to do that,

0:23:560:23:59

because we can read Henryson on the left and Heaney on the right.

0:23:590:24:03

Our eye can flit between the two

0:24:030:24:05

and, I think, part of what Heaney does with this is to shine light

0:24:050:24:09

back on Henryson, as well as offering his own translation

0:24:090:24:12

and some of those translations are innovations.

0:24:120:24:15

Like, you know, words like "gobshite" or "songsters" or other little

0:24:150:24:19

dialect words that, kind of, creep in that are Heaney's innovation

0:24:190:24:23

but I think there's also, kind of, an act of reverence

0:24:230:24:25

and respect for the original.

0:24:250:24:28

He'll try and stay, sometimes, as close to the Scots as he can,

0:24:280:24:30

but on other occasions, he'll just step out

0:24:300:24:33

and do his own thing.

0:24:330:24:34

There's a lovely example at the end of the fable of The Two Mice,

0:24:340:24:39

where the country mouse, having visited her urban sister,

0:24:390:24:42

finally returns to her own home and the Scots says...

0:24:420:24:47

Bot I hard say scho passit to hir den

0:24:470:24:50

Als warme as woll suppose it wes not greit,

0:24:500:24:54

Full beinly stuffit baith but and ben

0:24:540:24:57

Of beinis and nuttis, peis, ry, and quheit.

0:24:570:25:00

There's lots of wordplay there because "full beinly stuffit"

0:25:000:25:04

in Scots means, very comfortably stuffed

0:25:040:25:07

and Seamus does something really simple and charming.

0:25:070:25:11

Though, I have heard she made it to her nest,

0:25:110:25:14

that was as warm as wool, if small and strait.

0:25:140:25:18

Packed snugly from back wall to chimney breast,

0:25:180:25:21

with peas and nuts and beans and rye and wheat.

0:25:210:25:26

"Packed snugly" is exactly right for "full beinly stuffit".

0:25:260:25:30

It gets that sense of the small, happy, snug world of the mouse.

0:25:300:25:35

Fantastic. Just fantastic.

0:25:350:25:39

So, he doesn't mind changing their vocabulary of Henryson

0:25:390:25:44

in all kinds of problematic ways for the scholar of Henryson.

0:25:440:25:47

Because Henryson is speaking to his contemporary situation.

0:25:470:25:51

Heaney has decided that, in order to make Henryson speak

0:25:510:25:53

to our contemporary situation, he needs to honour

0:25:530:25:57

the meter of the poem, rhyme royal,

0:25:570:26:00

but not so much honour the vocabulary of it.

0:26:000:26:03

So, rhyme royal is a very difficult seven-line stanza

0:26:030:26:07

that starts as if it's going to rhyme A, B, A, B

0:26:070:26:11

and then, as it continues, it adds another B rhyme and then C, C.

0:26:110:26:15

So, line five has to participate in both patterns. It puts a lot

0:26:150:26:19

of pressure on line five and the poet has to be really adept

0:26:190:26:23

at finding the extra B rhyme and making it work,

0:26:230:26:26

both in the first half of the poem and the second half of the poem.

0:26:260:26:30

And each stanza finishes in a couplet,

0:26:300:26:33

so it's great for long narrative,

0:26:330:26:35

but it's also very good for summing up that sense that you've

0:26:350:26:39

got to the end of something.

0:26:390:26:41

Of course, it's not the same as Henryson. Some things it misses.

0:27:030:27:06

It does some things better, other things not as well.

0:27:060:27:09

But it becomes a new poem in its own right.

0:27:090:27:12

And it makes new this text, which was precisely what Henryson

0:27:120:27:15

was doing with his Latin Aesop that he had.

0:27:150:27:18

He was making a new poem out of an old text.

0:27:180:27:20

And, in exactly the same way, I think,

0:27:200:27:22

Heaney was making it new for the 21st century in the same way

0:27:220:27:25

that Henryson made this ancient text new for the 15th century.

0:27:250:27:29

The drive to own possessions makes men blind.

0:27:290:27:33

Avarice rampant is renamed success.

0:27:330:27:37

But they forget the carter comes behind,

0:27:370:27:40

to spoil the sport and void what they invest.

0:27:400:27:44

The hollow of the wave follows the crest.

0:27:440:27:47

I, therefore, counsel all concerned -

0:27:470:27:50

remember Carter, fox and wolf, and what they stand for.

0:27:500:27:55

The loss of Seamus Heaney is incalculable, really.

0:27:580:28:00

It's, kind of, unbearable. The world of poetry as a whole was...

0:28:000:28:05

was not just kept alive by him, but was made serious by him.

0:28:050:28:10

He couldn't be taken lightly and, since he died

0:28:100:28:15

and the shock of that, there is, really, a real sense

0:28:150:28:17

of emptiness, I think, of waiting for the, you know,

0:28:170:28:21

literary world to find some other kind of prop that he provided always

0:28:210:28:26

and provided always with such good humour, of course,

0:28:260:28:30

and such generosity.

0:28:300:28:32

It's...it's very hard to see what happens next, really.

0:28:320:28:36

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