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Translation
Index


Impromptu To Captain Riddell
On Returning A Newspaper

 

Burns Original

Standard English Translation

1.
Your News and Review, Sir,
I've read through and through, Sir,
With little admiring or blaming:
The Papers are barren
Of home-news or foreign --
No murders or rapes worth the naming.
2.
Our friends, the Reviewers,
Those chippers and hewers,
Are judges of mortar and stone, Sir;
But of meet or unmeet
In a fabric complete
I'll boldly pronounce they are none, Sir.
3.
My goose-quill too rude is
To tell all your goodness
Bestow'd on your servant, the Poet;
Would to God I had one
Like a beam of the sun,
And then all the world, Sir, should know it!


Your News and Review, Sir,
I have read through and through, Sir,
With little admiring or blaming:
The Papers are barren
Of home-news or foreign -
No murders or rapes worth the naming.

Our friends, the Reviewers,
Those chippers and hewers,
Are judges of mortar and stone, Sir;
But of meet or unmeet
In a fabric complete
I'll boldly pronounce they are none, Sir.

My goose-quill too rude is
To tell all your goodness
Bestowed on your servant, the Poet;
Would to God I had one
Like a beam of the sun,
And then all the world, Sir, should know it

 

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