Few Scots can lang the auld syne

EDINBURGH, Scotland, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- The vast majority of Scots know at least some of the words to their national bard's most famous lyric but only 12 percent know the whole thing.

Robert Burns's "Auld Lang Syne" has become the traditional song to usher in the New Year in Scotland -- where the holiday is known as Hogmanay -- as well as in Sydney, New York and Hollywood. But a survey finds that about 20 percent of Scots are lost once they get past "Should auld acquaintance be forgot," The Scotsman reports.

The lyric was originally a tribute to a youthful friendship or romance written in the Lowland Scots dialect. Few Scots can recite the later verses without looking them up.

They include lines like:

We twa hae sported i' the burn,

From morning sun till dine,

But seas between us braid hae roared

Sin' auld lang syne.

A rough translation is: "We two have sported in the brook from morning sun to dinner. But seas between us broad have roared since a long time ago."

Not as poetic, perhaps, as the original, but easier to understand -- and maybe easier to memorize, too.