Sunset Song

1

Say...

"Oo, oo, oo, butin."

Oo, oo, oo, butin.

No.

Put your mouths

as if you were about to whistle.

But don't do it.

Say...

"Oo, oo, oo, butin."

Oo, oo, oo, butin.

Mrs Hemans, is there one pupil who is in

any way proficient in the French language?

Chris Guthrie is one of my best...

especially in Latin.

Let her stand up.

Say...

"Oo, oo, oo, butin."

Oo, oo, oo, butin.

Oh.

I hope your Latin is as good.

Is your father really a socialist?

Yeah.

Chae says that all should be equal...

rich and poor, men and women.

He wants me to learn

so I'll be ready for the revolution.

And if it doesn't come?

Well, I'll train to be a doctor

and cut the bodies of the paupers.

You better take care

you don't die a pauper, Chris.

I'd hate to be standing there

with the scalpel in my hand

and looking into your queer dead face

and crying,

"But this is Chris Guthrie!"

Marget Strachan!

Oh, but Aberdeen?

Well, it's the best place for a scholar

and I'll be trained all the sooner.

Oh, Chrissie, Chrissie,

only fools love being alive!

Men, women... what fools

they are below their clothes.

There are lovely things in the world...

lovely that don't endure,

and the lovelier for that.

Wait till you find yourself in the arms

of your lad at the harvest time.

He'll stop joking,

and he'll take you like this.

There's not a body to see us! And hold you

like this, with his hands held so,

and kiss you like this.

Mwah!

"And when the First Reformation came,

some folk cried, 'Whiggam, '

and some cried, 'Rome, '

and some cried, 'The King.'

Then Dutch William came and

the Kinraddies were all for the Covenant.

But then it was an ill time

for the Scottish gentry,

for the poison of the French Revolution

came over the seas

and the new Laird of Kinraddie

became a Jacobin

and joined the Jacobin Club in Aberdeen."

Oh, there's no land like Aberdeen.

Or folks so fine that bide there.

Oh, Chris, my lass, there's more to life

than your books or studies.

There's the countryside your own...

you, its.

In the days when you're neither

bairn nor woman.

Peace, Jean, peace.

She'll do us credit.

Go on, Chris, read us more.

"And there at Aberdeen, he was

nearly killed in rioting for liberty,

and equality and fraternity."

Equality should begin at home.

Yes, she sat for her bursary...

and got it.

But two Chrisses there were...

that fought for her heart.

She hated the land

and the coarse speak of the folk.

And learning was brave and fine one day,

and the next she'd waken,

with the peewits crying

across the hills...

deep and deep,

crying in the heart of her.

And the smell of the earth in her face

almost made her cry...

for the beauty of it and the sweetness

of the Scottish land and skies.

And the next minute that passed from her

and she was English,

back to the English words,

so sharp and clean and true.

For a while, for a while, till they slid

so smoothly from her throat.

She knew that they could never say

anything worth the saying at all.

Amo, amas.

I love a lass.

Clever enough to be a teacher.

Aye.

Clever enough.

Move over...

Jehovah.

If I ever hear you take the name

of the Lord thy God in vain again,

I'll libb you.

I'll libb you like a lamb.

I hate him.

Oh, Will.

I hate him.

Jean.

Four in a family's fine.

Fine?

There'll be no more.

We'll have what God in his mercy

sends to us, woman.

See you to that!

I hate him.

It was her hair.

Her bonny, bonny hair.

Man, it's a fair tough case!

I'll need your help!

You, get the doctor

an egg for his breakfast now.

Guthrie, man, do you hear me?

I'm not deaf!

She's far too old for that.

She shouldnae be having another baby.

It's him.

It's the beast.

But don't worry.

His friend Jehovah will see to it all.

Hot water, jugs of it.

Pour me a basin of water, Chris,

and put plenty of soap nearby it.

- Do you hear me?

- Aye, Doctor! Only, she's feared.

She'll have a damned sight more to fear

when she's having a bairn of her own!

Pour out that water, quick!

It's twins.

We'll need more rooms.

More rooms?

Are we joining the gentry, Jean?

Well...

we're to bide here, then?

Content yourself.

I'll find a place.

I am a poor wayfaring stranger

A-wandering through this world of woe

And there's no sickness, toil or danger

In that great world to which I go

- I'm going home to see my father

- John, stop!

Halt!

Get down, you brat!

We'd better loosen up at Portlethen

and not try the slug this night.

Damn it to hell, woman,

you think I'm made of silver?

I know we're not made of silver,

but we might all die of the night.

I'm only going over home

So that was how she came to Blawearie...

Oh, Kinraddie.

I'm going home to meet my mother

She said she'd meet me when I come

I'm only going over Jordan

I'm only going over home

God, you've stripped!

You'd make a fine lad, Chris.

Get out of there at once,

you shameful limmer!

Get your clothes on!

What can folks say if they see her

out here near naked?

If your neighbours haven't seen

a naked lass,

they must have fathered their own bairns

with their breeks on.

What's this I'm hearing about you

and some b*tch from Drumlithie?

Aye, she's not a virgin either!

Right.

I'm off to the mart at Laurencekirk.

No other soul must handle the gun

but Father.

Aye.

You and your guns.

What harm was in Will that he used it?

You'll come out to the barn with me.

- Father, you can't.

- Hold your tongue.

Or I'll be taking you out as well.

There are lovely things in the world.

Lovely that do not endure...

and are lovelier for that.

Well, you'll be my neighbour,

Guthrie, man.

Aye.

And you'll be the new minister, Mr Gibbon.

You've a fine-kept farm, Mr Guthrie.

Trig and trim,

though I hear you've sat down

a bare six months.

Oh.

- My daughter, Chris.

- Ah.

I hear you're right clever, Chrissie,

and go to Duncairn College.

How do you like it?

Fine, sir.

And what are you to be?

A teacher, sir.

There's no profession more honourable.

How do you find the land to work,

Mr Guthrie?

Oh, Mother.

Have I vexed you?

Oh, not you, Chris.

Just... life.

I cannot tell you a thing or advise.

You'll need to face men for yourself.

When the time comes,

there's no one can stand and help you.

Mind that for me sometime...

if I cannot suffer it longer.

Chrissie!

Chrissie!

The doctor's come, Chrissie!

Now go and play outside.

What's wrong?

It's Mother.

She's poisoned herself...

and the two bairns.

Why?

Why did she do it?

She was pregnant again

and it unbalanced her.

You'd better send for Mistress Munro.

No.

I'll write to my sister Janet

in Auchterless.

She'll come.

Come on, Chris.

She's ready for you.

You can go up and see her now.

Jean...

Jean...

Something died in her heart...

and went down with Mother

to lie in Kinraddie Kirkyard.

The child in her heart had died then...

and Chris of the books and dreams

died with it.

And the dark quiet corpse

that was her childhood

was folded in the tissue paper

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