It's a wonderful song and one of which I am immensely fond. In fact it moves me to tears every time I hear it - as much for its humanist/communist/pacifist message as for its plea for the right of the Scots to be Scottish; and to have their own country back.

The problem is that the song is virtually untranslatable into English without the text losing its pungency. EG., heelster-gowdie can, I believe, be correctly translated as head over heels. But who would want to shove such a banal phrase into such a powerful anthem?

Nevertheless, and despite being English, I have been known to sing it, on anniversaries of Auld Hamish's death for instance, and more recently when the Scots forgot that they are the sons and daughters of Wallace and let us all down by voting no in the referendum.

Actually, there is one change I felt obliged to make. I sing the penultimate line as "And our comrades frae yont Nyanga". A change which I'm sure Hamish would have approved.