Scots poem of the month - April 2008

A Raik tae the Letter-box Oh, whit swippert the muin gaed breengin Southlins ablow the clouds past Barra leamin in the sea, and deil a bit did we ken at hus it wes at wes vaigin lik the skiffs norlins ayebidinlie, Galileo abuin Garrynamonie an Copernicus heich in the lift an the wast wunn waffin the electric wires an the letter gaun hurlin out o sicht. translated from the Gaelic by J Derrick McClure Poem supplied courtesy of the Scottish Poetry Library

About the Poet J. Derrick McClure is a senior lecturer at the University of Aberdeen. His principal fields of interest are the social, philological and literary history of the Scots language, poetic translation, metre and scansion, and the phonetics of Scottish English.  He is editor of the annual journal Scottish Language, Chairman of the Forum for Research in the Languages of Scotland and Ulster, and a member of the General Council, the International Committee and the Language Committee of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies, the BOSLIT Committee and the board of the Scottish Dictionaries Association. In addition, he has produced several publications including Language, Poetry and Nationhood (a study of Scots in late nineteenth- and twentieth-century poetry), and numerous articles and conference papers on Scottish linguistic and literary topics.

The Inspiration for the Poem Derrick says: "Gael or Lawlander, we’re aa Scots, tho sinnert by leid an cultuir; an the darg afore us is suirlie tae sain the langsyne unfrienlieness atweesh our twa fowk.  An the owersettin o poesie can gang a fair gait tae the reconcilement o cultuirs wi no muckle kennin o ither, wi garrin the bonnieheid o sangs in the ae leid kythe tae the readers o the tither.  Tae owerset the sangs o as skeelie a makar as Angus Peter Campbell, ye buid tae finn in the Scots tung aa the fouthieness at kythes in his Gaelic: but Gaelic an Scots is twa o the routhiest leids the warld can shaw, for ballants an bardrie; an tho the souns o the leids is uncolie different, ony thocht expreimit in the Heiland tung can echo loud an strang frae the Lawlands.  I hae ettl’t tae wale frae the word-huird o Scots words wi the mense an the muisic baith tae mak o the owersettin a maik for the original ballant: thon is the dule o an owersetter o poesie.   Gin I hae succeedit or no, the reader maun jidge."