A Body Meet a Body
The first time I heard of this poem/song by Robert Burns was in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Here’s what Holden Caulfield, the teenage narrator and main character of this novel, said:
It wasn’t as cold as it was the day before, but the sun still wasn’t out, and it wasn’t too nice for walking. But there was one nice thing. This family that you could tell just came out of some church were walking in front of me—a father, a mother, and a little kid about six years old. They looked sort of poor. The father had on one of those pearl-gray hats that poor guys wear a lot when they want to look sharp. He and his wife were just walking along, talking, not paying any attention to their kid. The kid was swell. He was walking in the street, instead of on the sidewalk, but right next to the curb. He was making out like he was walking a very straight line, the way kids do, and the whole time he kept singing and humming. I got up close so I could hear what he was singing. He was singing that song, “If a body catch a body, coming through the rye.” He had a pretty little voice, too. He was just singing for the hell of it, you could tell. The cars zoomed by, brakes screeched all over the pace, his parents paid no attention to him, and he kept on walking next to the curb and singing, “If a body catch a body coming through the rye.” It made me feel better. It made me feel not so depressed any more. (Page 115, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Bantam Books, April 1964.)
There’s a video below of the lyrics and someone singing the song and below that a copy of the poem by Robert Burns. (My dad told me once that after his dad (my grandpa) died, they discovered he had a book of Robert Burns’ poetry on his bedside table. My grandpa was a dairy farmer. I imagine he didn’t even go to high school. I always wondered what he thought of that poetry and what kind of man he was. He died when I was around 4 years old. I know Dad loved and respected him and my Grandma did, too.)’
Almost every day I walk to the grocery store kitty-corner across the street from us. I have to cross a big, busy intersection of an expressway and another quite busy road. When I meet someone coming across the crosswalk at the same time as me I often think of this image Holden Caulfield describes, and sing in my mind, “When a body meets a body comin’ through the rye.” I don’t really have any idea what it’s supposed to mean. I don’t even know what rye looks like. But I imagine a field with tall, golden grass and a little boy coming through it humming like Holden describes. It makes me “feel better” and “not so depressed,” too. Why?
When I meet someone walking the other way towards me, I try to catch their eye and nod, smile, and say hi. Most of the time, they smile back, although many avoid meeting my eyes at all. I think the friendliness of that little contact is a sign of hope. I’ve been thinking lately of trying to write something every day about a sign of hope I’ve seen or thought of that day. Some writers have done something similar, like The Book of Delights by Ross Gay, and I have a friend, Shemaiah Gonzalez, who writes a newsletter and has a book coming out soon called Undaunted Joy. Years ago, I read the book Reason for Hope by Jane Goodall, and although I cannot now remember all the details, the takeaway I got was that we had reason for hope because people, especially one-on-one, were kind to one another. They help each other in emergencies. They sometimes risk their lives to save others. We hear about heroes who did incredible things, but there are also hundreds, thousands, maybe millions of “regular” people who care for their fellow creatures and demonstrate the love for their neighbors that Jesus taught us. There are people doing horrible things to each other, and there are famines, wars, and natural disasters causing all kinds of suffering. I pray and do what I can to make those situations better. AND I thank God for the reasons for hope I see in the midst of it all.
I can’t find it now, but I think it was on a podcast episode of “On Being” where Krista Tippett interviewed a poet or a writer or something who said, “Do we not care for one another?” I think it was the line of a poem. That question often comes to me like a lament, “Do we not care for one another?” It feels like it should be a verse in a Psalm. I see a woman, with tears flowing down her cheeks, saying to crowds of people around her, “Do we not care for one another?” In spite of it all, I believe the answer is, “Yes, we care for one another,” and most of us are trying to show that care the best we can.
Comin thro' the Rye
by Robert Burns
[First Setting]
Comin thro' the rye, poor body,
Comin thro' the rye,
She draigl't a' her petticoatie
Comin thro' the rye.
[CHORUS.]
Oh Jenny 's a' weet poor body
Jenny 's seldom dry,
She draigl't a' her petticoatie
Comin thro' the rye.
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body —
Need a body cry.
Oh Jenny 's a' weet, &c.
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the glen;
Gin a body kiss a body —
Need the warld ken!
Oh Jenny 's a' weet, &c.
[Second Setting]
Gin a body meet a body, comin thro' the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body, need a body cry;
Ilka body has a body, ne'er a ane hae I;
But a' the lads they loe me, and what the waur am I.
Gin a body meet a body, comin frae the well,
Gin a body kiss a body, need a body tell;
Ilka body has a body, ne'er a ane hae I,
But a the lads they loe me, and what the waur am I.
Gin a body meet a body, comin frae the town,
Gin a body kiss a body, need a body gloom;
Ilka Jenny has her Jockey, ne'er a ane hae I,
But a' the lads they loe me, and what the waur am I.
~~From The Poetry Foundation. (What would we do without The Poetry Foundation?!)