Thomas Blake Glover (A Ballad)

Merchant, Industrialist,Entrepreneur Born as a Brocher, Thomas Blake Glover Raised in Commerce Street, sea in the air Niver a laddie tae dauchle or dover At thirteen his faimily meeved tae the toun He larned in the Chanonry, auld Aiberdeen His faither, Chief Coastguaird, luiked eftir the boaties Their villa at Balgownie, weel tae be seen Wi Jardine an Matheson, co. he tuik wirk At nineteen he first sailed awa tae Japan At a time fin tae trade there wis byordnar hard Incomers wir watched there as faes tae a man Glover established a place fur his maisters In far Nagasaki, bocht Japan Green Tea. Fin twa years gaed by, iver eident an skeely Ower thonner he set up his ain company The Shogunate squared up tae Sooth Japan clans Thomas syne tradit in weapon an boat Ipponmatsu, wis the Single Pine Tree His hoose far he keepit his empire afloat He faithered a laddie caad Tomisaburo, Bi a quine, Kaga Maki, a young courtesan His named wife Tsuru, she gaed him a dother Caad Hana, hauf Scots lass, an hauf o Japan An fit wir the ferlies he brocht tae their nation? He helped tae establish the firm Mitsubishi The first dry dock, coal mine, an steam locomotive He laid the first phone line frae oot Nagasaki He enlisted a Scot tae bigg Japan's first Lichthooses, Set up a Mint tae produce the first yen He helpit young students tae study in Scotlan His mowser's on Kirin beer labels, ye ken! The Scots Samurai wis the name that they gaed him His honours: the Order o the Risin Sun A National hero, twa million fowk veesit His hame in Japan, far sic honours he won Some say Madame Butterflee's foondit on Glover For Tsuru hid butterflees shewed on her claes Glen Garioch distillery blendit a fuskey Hauf Japan, hauf Garioch, a mellin o weys The Broch celebrates this remairkable Scotsman He deed in Japan, age o seventy three His ashes are interred in hyne Nagasaki In the furreigners Sakamoto Cemetery. Thon Broch Samurai, o the Scottish diaspora Noo is settled forayein the lan o his choice The Lan o jiu-jitsu, o sumo, o sushi The man fa gaed Modern Japan its strang voice