File:AU Burns Canberra.jpg

Summary

Statue of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns" class="extiw" title="en:Robert Burns">Robert Burns</a> in Canberra, Australia. Sculptor was John S. Davie (1862-1955); The foundery was Chiurazzi, Napoli (<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Naples" class="mw-redirect" title="Naples">Naples</a>). It was erected in 1935 at the corner of Canberra Avenue and National Circuit, Forrest, where then stood the Burns Club.

The plinth bears the words:

Burns

Born 1759 - Died 1790
O wad some power the giftie gie us
to see ourselves as they see us
It wad frae monie a blunder free us

an foolish notion

Behind the statue are four friezes, bearing the a likeness to Burns' works with quotes below (L-R):

But now your brow is beld john, your locks are like the snaw, but blessings on you frosty bow, John Anderson mu Jo

But mousie thou art no thy lane, in proving foresight may be vain, the best laid plans o mice and men, canc aft a cley

Kings may be blest but Tam was clorious O'er a the ills o life victorious

From scenes like these old Scotia's granseur springs That makes her loved at home revered abroad

Status of the Inscription

The four-line transcription stated above for the text on the plinth bears a misleading resemblance to standard versions of the widely quoted-from Burns poem "To a Louse".

The plinth transcription's 2nd line

to see ourselves as they see us

corresponds to the typical Scottish-dialect version

to see oursels as ithers see us

which is sometimes quoted (even when the first line is left in a Scots version) with "ithers" translated to "others", and less often with "oursels" also translated (to "ourselves")

The final stanza (among the 8) of "To A Louse, On Seeing One On A Lady's Bonnet, At Church" has six lines; the first two are the most often quoted. The final stanza, in Scots, reads (per the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1279/1279-h/1279-h.htm#2H_4_0107">Project Gutenberg transcription of Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns</a>)

O wad some Power the giftie gie us

To see oursels as ithers see us!

It wad frae mony a blunder free us,

An' foolish notion:

What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,

An' ev'n devotion!

To name a few, the following sources match that, verbatim et literatim (and in fact punctuation), as to at least the first four lines:

1. <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.robertburns.org/works/97.shtml">http://www.robertburns.org/works/97.shtml</a>
2. <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/louse.html">http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/louse.html</a>
3. <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/robert_burns/Robert_Burns_Poems_To_A_Louse.htm">http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/robert_burns/Robert_Burns_Poems_To_A_Louse.htm</a>
4. <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.famous-poems.biz/Robert_Burns/To-A-Louse-top-ten-poems-by-Robert-Burns.html">http://www.famous-poems.biz/Robert_Burns/To-A-Louse-top-ten-poems-by-Robert-Burns.html</a>
5. <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1279/1279-h/1279-h.htm#2H_4_0107">http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1279/1279-h/1279-h.htm#2H_4_0107</a>
6. <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.bartleby.com/6/99.html">http://www.bartleby.com/6/99.html</a>

and as to the line in question, Google results, as of 2008 June 4, are

414 for "to see oursels as ithers see us".

and in contrast,

8 for "to see ourselves as they see us" burns "some power" OR "some pow'r".

of which five are like "forces us Latin Americans to see ourselves as they see us" and the remaining three are from WikiMedia sites, in connection with this image: <a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escoc%C3%A9s_(lengua_germ%C3%A1nica)#Literatura" class="extiw" title="es:Escocés (lengua germánica)">es:Escocés (lengua germánica)#Literatura</a>, Image:AU Burns Canberra.jpg, and <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File_talk:AU_Burns_Canberra.jpg" title="File talk:AU Burns Canberra.jpg">Image talk:AU Burns Canberra.jpg</a>.

Licensing

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