The Meaning of Auld Lang Syne by Robert Burns (with translation)

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Auld Lang Syne is a traditional poem/song by one on Scotland’s most famous historic writers, Robert Burns. It’s sung after “the Bells” on New Years day (i.e. as “Hogmanay” closes at midnight and the new year begins) as a celebration of friendship.

To start with, here’s the original.

The song is asking whether old friendships should be forgotten, and the answer is no. The lyrics are reminiscing about old times with friends and the good memories shared, and wishing to continue these friendships in the future. The chorus repeats the phrase "For auld lang syne", which means "For the sake of old times". The last verse of the song is inviting someone to take a drink together to remember old times and to continue the good memories.

Auld Lang Syne

Verse 1:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And auld lang syne!

Chorus:

For auld lang syne, my dear, For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup of kindness yet, For auld lang syne.

Verse 2:

And surely ye'll be your pint-stoup! And surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet, For auld lang syne.

Verse 3:

We two have run about the slopes, And picked the daisies fine;
But we've wandered many a weary foot, Sin auld lang syne.

Verse 4:

We two have paddled in the stream, From morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roared Sin auld lang syne.

Verse 5:

And there's a hand, my trusty fiere! And gie's a hand o' thine!
And we'll tak a right gude-willy waught, For auld lang syne.

Now here is a translation of all the Scottish words in the lyrics of "Auld Lang Syne" into English:

  • "Auld" - Old

  • "Lang syne" - Long ago

  • "Acquaintance" - Friendships

  • "Forgot" - Forgotten

  • "Brought" - Brought

  • "Mind" - Mind

  • "Tak" - Take

  • "Cup" - Cup

  • "Kindness" - Kindness

  • "Pint-stoup" - Pint glass

  • "Run" - Run

  • "About" - About

  • "Slopes" - Hills

  • "Picked" - Picked

  • "Daisies" - Daisies

  • "Wandered" - Wandered

  • "Weary" - Tired

  • "Foot" - Foot

  • "Sin" - Since

  • "Paddled" - Paddled

  • "Stream" - Stream

  • "Morning sun" - Morning sun

  • "Dine" - Dinner

  • "Seas" - Seas

  • "Between us" - Between us

  • "Braid" - Wide

  • "Hae" - Have

  • "Roared" - Roared

  • "Hand" - Hand

  • "Trusty" - Trustworthy

  • "Fiere" - Comrade

  • "Gie's" - Give me

  • "Thine" - Your

  • "Right gude-willy waught" - A good drink

Finally, a rewrite of Auld Lang Syne with the Scots translated into English:

Verse 1:

Should old acquaintances be forgotten And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintances be forgotten And old times gone!

Chorus:

For old times' sake, my dear, For old times' sake,
We'll take a cup of kindness yet, For old times' sake.

Verse 2:

And surely you'll be your pint glass! And surely I'll be mine!
And we'll take a cup of kindness yet, For old times' sake.

Verse 3:

We two have run about the hills And picked the daisies fine;
But we've wandered many a weary foot, Since old times gone.

Verse 4:

We two have paddled in the stream, From morning sun till dine;
But seas between us wide have roared Since old times gone.

Verse 5:

And there's a hand, my trusty comrade! And give me a hand of yours!
And we'll take a right good-drink together, For old times' sake.

How I eventually cured 2 years of back pain in 2 weeks

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In March/April 2019, I did the first lawn-cut of the season. Nothing too strenuous, but I noticed afterwards a twinge in my back. Of course, after a bit of exertion that may not be unusual, so I just assumed it would pass over the next day or two.

It didn’t.

I hadn’t felt anything unusual whilst mowing the lawn, so I was staggered that I had some muscle pain down below my right kidney. And even more staggered that as time went by, it wasn’t cured with rest.

Over the course of the next year (2020) I tried many remedies, including some absolute quackery, out of pure desperation. Amongst them:

  • Purchase of a “Rem-Fit” hybrid mattress (which was way too firm and was sent back)

  • Purchase of a “Nectar” memory phone mattress, which was more comfortable and supportive, but did not improve anything.

  • “The cubes” memory foam pillow ( https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1468455840/the-cubes-the-worlds-first-geometric-structure-pil ) - which is a brilliant pillow by the way, and helped with a lot of neck ache. (But not back-ache)

  • Switching to a “sit/stand” electric desk. I’m a full time homeworker, and I thought being able to stand and improve posture at my desk, might help

  • Purchasing a massage cover for my office chair (this type of thing: https://amzn.to/3QClIJz ) which allows you to heat and massage your back and neck while sitting at work (or in the car, for that matter).

  • Heat Pads and heat cream

  • Kailo Patch (complete scam and quackery - claims to interrupt nerve signals)

It has to be said, apart from the final item, all of these did provide some sort of relief, albeit temporary. Nothing would actually cure what was really just a bit of muscle strain, and it got to the point where i couldn’t sit on the sofa, or the dining chairs, or any seat in the house without being in agony. It was ridiculous!

Now, it just so happens that I’m a “side sleeper” and I happened to notice one night that how when I moved/lifted my head, it affected the painful back muscles near my pelvis/kidney. Likewise, how I moved my leg and feet did the same. It was suddenly obvious that there is inter-connectivity of the muscle structures and posture from head to toe. This made me realise that my posture in bed, especially when lying on my side, could be putting strain on my back and side muscles, due to improper alignment.

It was an epiphany.

That night I tried to concentrate on removing this strain, and found that lying more on my front seemed to relax my muscles the most. Now, I don’t mean flat on my stomach with face in the pillow, but something more like 135 degrees over from flat on my back. (45 degrees facing the bed). The next morning, my back was a little easier, so I kept up this posture.

Within days, I could really tell the difference, which encouraged me to keep going: after a week, my pain was reduced by about 60%. I kept going and after 2 weeks I had no pain at all! It was incredible - literally 2 weeks of sleeping on my front had cured 2 years of back pain.

And, if I had written this article at the time, the story would have ended there.

Then, about a year later (2022), my wife needed hospital treatment and recovery and couldn’t make it upstairs to bed, so she spent sometime recovering in the spare room.

During those few weeks, I started spreading out in bed a bit more and changing my posture. I also noticed that the Nectar mattress had deformed. It was depressed/compressed where we each would lie, and higher/uncompressed in the middle. (Nectar offer a lifetime guarantee, but only if the mattress sinks by 4cm, which this hasn’t). The long and short of it is, I started to lie in different postures, partly trying to figure out if the mattress needed replacing, and my back pains started to come back again in the same place.

It underlined the fact that this back pain was almost entirely caused by sleeping posture, and that the current mattress was ok in some positions, but not in others.

As my wife recovered, she wanted to get out of the spare room again, and use the main bed; in order to make that more manageable for her, we added the Panda Memory-foam topper ( https://amzn.to/3vNXDWq ) we had for our spare room sofa-bed. Wow, what a world of difference that made. Within only ONE night, I woke up with the pain in my back gone, though I felt a few twinges during the day, After the second night it was cleared again, and this time during the day, it was all clear.

What I did notice were a few neck twinges, so I need to adjust my pillow again, so my neck is straight.

In conclusion

So what can I conclude? Basically that years of back pain was ultimately being prolonged by sleeping position. Sleeping in on my front on the existing mattress eliminated the pain (caused by uneven tension on my back muscles in bed). When that mattress started to age and no longer offer quite the same support at exactly the right height, a memory foam topper got everything back on track again. (As an aside, I use the Nuzzle pillow system now, and it’s amazing.)

I couldn’t believe it was so simple.