J D Salinger, Robert Burns and that field of rye....

You know that song, 'If a body catch a body comin' through the rye'?'" Spoken by Holden Caulfield
- J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Ch. 22

"It's 'If a body meet a body coming through the rye'!... It's a poem. By Robert Burns.'" spoken by Phoebe Caulfield.
- J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Ch. 22

 That ploughman gets everywhere. J D Salinger, who died yesterday aged 91, took the title of his famous novel The Catcher in the Rye, from Burns's Comin Thro the Rye. His confused protaganist, Holden Caulfield, is talking to his kid sister and misquotes the poem as "when a body catch a body". She corrects him. Caulfield then says:

 "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be."
- J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Ch. 22

 The Burns poem is about illicit sex in the rye field....why did Salinger's protaganist mishear it? There are theories that it was not accidental. The novel is about the loss of innocence, the transition to adulthood and the fear of growing up. The poem, of course, is also about sexual awakening and leaving childish things behind....and the inherent danger in this. The melody, which is so melancholic,  suggests this is about something far more meaningful than a roll in the hay...which is no doubt why Salinger, whose mother was Scots Irish, was so inspired by it.

Anyway, for all you Salinger fans reminiscing about your days as an alientated teenager. Here is that inspirational Burns song in the original Scots. 

O Jenny's a' weet, poor body,
Jenny's seldom dry:
She draigl't a' her petticoatie,
Comin thro' the rye!
1.
Comin thro' the rye, poor body,
Comin thro' the rye,
She draigl't a' her petticoatie,
Comin thro' the rye!
2.
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need a body cry?
3.
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the glen,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need the warld ken?
4.
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the grain,
Gin a body kiss a body,
The thing's a body's ain.

 

Comments

[susan]

thanks for this, Joan! Catcher was my adolescent bible!