For lack of any real Scotch here, I toasted Robbie Burns last week with some Sortilège, which I had brought over to my Barcelona hostess as a “uniquely Québécois gift”. It’s liqueur that mixes Canadian whisky and maple syrup — normally I don’t go for that kind of thing but it’s actually pretty decent. Now, it smells pretty much like rubbing alcohol, but when you take a sip you’re very pleasantly surprised to find the delicious taste of maple syrup and whisky.
Oops, I got off-topic… With Robbie Burns’ Day long gone, and my father relating his tales of “addressing the haggis” at a Burns Supper, I got thinking about the bagpipes. (I do that from time to time, you know.) In fact, I know a few pipers and am here to say that the pipes can be a very beautiful and moving instrument. And no — ha ha, yes, good one, very funny — not just “moving” as far away as you can. If you’ve ever been to a Highland Games, like the ones in Montréal, where they have hundreds of pipers and drummers all playing together in sync…well, let me tell you it is quite literally (and also emotionally) moving. The ground thunders, and every “rattle-able” thing you have (above or below the kilt) rattles.
The gallegos (people from Galicia) have Celtic roots — although, like the Asturians and unlike the “official” Celtic nations, they did not keep the language. But they do have bagpipes, fiddles and the bodhran (drum). I wonder if they also have haggis…and a Día de Robertito Quema? Some interesting musicians — Galician piper Carlos Núñez may have been one of the first — have experimented with cross-breeding flamenco and Celtic music (Núñez, in particular, beginning with his second album: Os amores libres).
So, strange though it may seem, there is a Spanish word for bagpipes: la gaita. And they also have some great expressions that use it!
It can mean “a drag or nuisance”…
Es una gaita tener que ir al trabajo. — It’s a real drag having to go to work. Literally: it’s bagpipes to have to go to work. I see they have the same opinion of bagpipes as much of the non-Scottish world (and, let’s face it, some of the Scottish world, too). It is very telling that I’ve never heard pipes on the tartanpodcast. But you’ve got to see Shooglenifty perform live if you want to have some piping good fun! Oops, wait a sec — now that I think of it, there is no piper in Shooglenifty, either. Sigh… All right, then, Afro-Celt Sound System — they have a great mix of Irish uilleann pipes and African tribal percussion that is also a fantastic live show.
Anyhow, back to Spanish. La gaita can also colloquially refer to the neck…
Sacaba la gaita por la ventana. — He craned his neck (“the pipes”) out of the window. I guess this is better than craning your “plumbing” out the window, which some drunk young people have been known to do.
Another funny use is templar gaitas, which means to be conciliatory.
Tuvimos que estar templando gaitas con su padre. — We had to tread carefully with his father. Used with musical instruments, the verb templar means “to tune”…so, translated literally, this is a great expression: Every time we had to deal with his father it was like tuning the bagpipes.
So… Tread carefully and keep in tune, eh?