Sunset Song Page #5

Eyes like your mother

and a nature the same.

Will you wear a suit, Ewan?

What, me, look like a bloody conchy?

I need some money.

I'm off to Drumlithie.

I'm entitled to what's my own.

When the hell

are you bringing some breakfast?

If you're in need of some breakfast,

get it!

- Have you gone clean...

- I'll not be treated like a Lanark tart!

You b*tch!

I am not frightened of you!

No! No, you can afford to be brave.

You're no' the one

that's gotta go to France!

Why... Then why did you enlist?

Cos I was sick of folk laughing at me,

jeering at me for a coward!

And you, you're blethering

that your man's no longer polite!

Oh, Ewan.

Everything was changing.

And as the land changed, so did Chris.

She looked for the days gone by.

She looked to see the faces of her

mother and father in the firelight

before the lamps were lit.

Faces dear and close to her.

She wanted to hear the words

they'd known and used

in the far-off youngness of their lives.

Scots words,

to tell to your heart

how they wrung it and held it

through all of the toil of their days.

And the unending fight with the land.

And a queer thought came to her.

Nothing endured but the land.

Sea, sky and the folk

who live there were but a breath.

But the land endured.

And, at that moment,

she felt in the gloaming...

that she was the land.

I'll put Ewan to bed.

Aye.

Thank you.

What do I do?

Oh, what do I do?

What do I do?

Did you cry me, Chris?

What do I do, John?

Do I have to go to France?

It's sore news.

But he died out there like a man...

your Ewan.

It's a lie.

They're lying.

He's not dead.

My Ewan's not dead!

It's a lie! It's a lie!

It's a lie!

It's a lie!

It's a lie!

It's a lie!

"Country and King".

What have they to do with my Ewan?

Blawearie's his land.

Those English generals in London,

they're lying.

They're cowards!

They're lying. They, they...

They're just tormenting me.

It's a lie! It's a lie!

It's a lie!

And when she'd finished,

she went quiet and cold.

Mornings came up...

noons with their suns.

Rains came, soft and grey and quiet

across the land.

But they brought her neither

terror nor hope...

now that her man had been

murdered for nothing.

Oh, Ewan...

Ewan?

Chae.

Chae... he's not living?

Ewan's dead.

Don't vex yourself hoping else.

They can't hurt him any more.

Even this can't hurt him.

But I know right well

you should know it, Chris.

Ewan was shot...

as a coward and a deserter

out there in France.

You're better always to know

what's truth in a thing.

For lies come creeping home

to roost, Chris.

You're young yet.

You've hardly begun to live.

And I swore to mysel' I'd tell you all

so you'd never be vexed with me.

I'll never be vexed with you

for telling me this.

It was best.

It was best.

Left, left, left, left, left, left, left!

At the double!

Left, left, left, left, left...

- Firing party.

- Left, left, left...

Take aim...

Fire!

Why did you do it, Ewan?

You might well have known

you'd never get free.

I did it for Chris, Chae.

For Blawearie.

It's bare a quarter of an hour now, Chae.

Take aim... fire!

She didn't even come to kiss me goodbye.

Chae...

never said goodbye.

Oh, man!

Mind me when you're back at Blawearie.

And will you look at my lass for me...

when you see her again?

And you give her that kiss...

the kiss that I'll never give her.

And she'll think

I died like the rest of them.

Don't tell her.

Please, Chae...

you're no' to tell my dear Chris.

Mind that night of the storm, Chae...

wi' you on horses?

Right?

That was the night...

the night that I knew Chris liked me well.

And the song that she sung, when we wed...

Och...

What was that song that she sung?

I've heard the liltin'

At the ewe-milkin'

Lassies a-liltin'

Before dawn o' day

Now there's a moanin'

On ilka green loanin'

The floo'ers o' the forest

Are a' wede away

At buchts, in the mornin'

Nae blythe lads are scornin'

Lassies are lonely

And dowie and wae

Nae daffin', nae gabbin'

But sighin' and sobbin'

Ilk ane lifts her leglin

And hies her away

There'll be nae mair liltin'

At the ewe-milkin'

Women and bairns

Are heartless and wae

Sighin' and moanin'

On ilka green loanin'

The floo'ers o' the forest

Are a' wede away

The floo'ers o' the forest

Are a' wede away

Oh, Ewan.

Sleep quiet and sound now, lad.

I understand.

You did it for me...

and I am proud.

You did it for me and Blawearie.

My dear, my dear...

Sleep quiet and brave...

for I've understood.

I've come home, Chris.

I've come home.

He could fair play, that piper.

He tore at your heart with the tune

echoing across the loch.

It rose and rose and wept.

He played for all those who died:

Long Rob...

Chae Strachan...

and Ewan.

All of them.

We had the last of the light up there.

And maybe we did not need it or heed it...

but you can do without day if you have

a lamp quiet lighted and kind in your heart.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes