With her home in ruins, this senior pays tribute to what she has lost.
As the Lebanese people woke up to a new day and faced the aftermath of an explosion in Beirut, a moving video has emerged of an elderly lady sitting at her piano and gently playing the tune to Auld Lang Syne accompanied with the background noise of glass being swept up.
With her window blown in and glass scattered on the floor, the senior can be seen playing away while another person cleans up debris.
Although the Scots tune is perhaps an unusual choice for someone sitting at a piano in the Middle East, it’s an old folk song, leaning on the works of the poet Robert Burns, that is particularly meaningful today.
The nostalgic song’s title literally means “old long since,” which can be understood as “days gone by.” It’s a song that acknowledges the past as we move into the future; so it’s particularly common to hear it at New Year’s.
This latest rendition, however, seems to sum up most beautifully this elderly lady’s feelings of what she has lost, while celebrating what she had.
An woman in #Lebanon playing Auld Lang Syne, a Scots-language poem:
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For days of auld lang syne https://t.co/Bs2zuaM93R— Ines San Martin (@inesanma) August 5, 2020
