[fionaB]

ok..... i usually pride myself on being able to understand most Scottish dialects....... until my son came home today with a poem he has to learn for burns night......
im going to put it here and I am humbly asking you all to give your translations in the hope we can actually make some sort of effort at it....... I have managed to translate a lot of it but there are still certain parts that are beyond us here........ so........

LAMENT FOR A LOST DINNER TICKET

See ma mammy
See ma dinner ticket
A pititnma
Pokit and she pititny
washnmachine

See thon burntay
Up wherra firewiz
ma mammy says am no tellnyagain
no'y playnit
A jist wen'y eatma
Pokacrisps furma dinner
nabigwoffldoon

The wummin sed Aver near
Clapsed
Jistur heednur
Wee wellies sticknoot

They sed wot heppind?
Nme'nma belly
Na bedna hospital
a sed Apititnma
Pokit an she pititny
Washnmachine

They sed Ees thees chaild eb slootly
non verbal?
A sed MA BUMSAIR
Nwen'y sleep.!

[fionaB]

ok have finished the translation but would like to see everyone elses! lol

Fi

[cotter]

a canny see enyfin rang wi rat

[fionaB]

it was the last verse was stumping me until i put on a posh english accent tindged with scottish! lololol

[Sonsey]

I'm not even attempting that Fi lol...!!!

[fionaB]

awwwwwwww go on! you know u wanna!

[Rob Barron]

Errr, did Robert Burns have a washing mahine in his day? <g> Fun reading though

[Sonsey]

Maybe I should've said, I can't attempt that... I havn't a clue what's being said!!!

[fionaB]

LAMENT FOR A LOST DINNER TICKET

See ma mammy See my Mum
See ma dinner ticket See my dinner ticket
A pititnma I put it in my
Pokit and she pititny Pocket and she pu it in the
washnmachine Washing machine

See thon burntay Do you know the Burn (stream)
Up wherra firewiz Up where the fire was
ma mammy says am no tellnyagain my mum said i'm not telling you again
no'y playnit not to play in it
A jist wen'y eatma I just went to eat my
Pokacrisps furma dinner packet of crisps for my dinner
nabigwoffldoon And i ate them quickly

The wummin sed Aver near The woman said I very nearly
Clapsed collapsed
Jistur heednur Just your head and your
Wee wellies sticknoot Wee wellies sticking out

They sed wot heppind? They said What happened
Nme'nma belly And me and my belly
Na bedna hospital In a bed in a hospital
a sed Apititnma I said I put it in my
Pokit an she pititny Pocket and she put it in the
Washnmachine Washing machine

They sed Ees thees chaild eb slootly They said Is this child absolutely
non verbal? non verbal
A sed MA BUMSAIR I said My bums sore
Nwen'y sleep.! And went to sleep

[AncientRuin]

I was trawling the internet for the text of this poem, (because I've been driving around trying to recite it), and found this thread. Thanks for posting. What follows has nothing to do with photography.

I once took my wife and kids to live in Edinburgh. I worked in Cumbernauld, and my daughter attended Stockbridge Primary, where she learnt the dinner ticket poem - maybe also for a Burns night. We're Australian, so the poem was totally incomprehensible to us.
I eventually figured out that my daughter probably understood it, because I once caught her talking to her friends in what sounded like (to me) a perfect Edinburgh accent.

However, the Glasgow accent is so difficult that I worked with Glaswegians for 6 months, and still couldn't understand them when they were talking about the fitba.

When people at work wanted to draw my attention to something, they'd tend to yell from the other side of the room "See this...etc", and I'd always think "Well no actually I can't, 'cos I'm here not *** there you Glasgow *****" (this is how Australians think). I think the "See this/see my" construction in the first 2 lines of the poem is fully Glasgae.

As is the "In the noo" expression (not in the poem), which made me fall off my chair the first time I heard it. The person who said this was of Indian (maybe you say Asian) extraction, so the culture shock was profound.

Anyway. enough of that. I reckon this poem is written in full Glasgwegian, and as such is an urban poem, without streams. (burntay is maybe same construction as daftie) My translation of the second verse is......Certainly the last line is correct.


See thon burntay Do you know the burnt out building?
Up wherra firewiz Up where the fire was
ma mammy says am no tellnyagain my mum said i'm not telling you again
no'y playnit don't play in it
A jist wen'y eatma I just went to eat my
Pokacrisps furma dinner packet of crisps for my dinner
nabigwoffldoon And a big wall fell down

Anyway, the poem still makes me laugh with it's belligerent narrator.

[fionaB]

i can see the way your translation works. although i have to say the last line "nabigwoffledoon" in Edinburgh slang would translate to " an a big waffle doon" which then translates to eating your fill quickly......... if you " waffle something doon" you eat it quickly