Scots featured poem - August 2009

This piece of writing was selected by the staff at the Scottish Poetry Library which receives Foundation funding from the Scottish Arts Council

from The Godothin The bauldness o the carle, The youthheid o the loun, The smeddum i the fecht, The licht shiel ower aboun, The flisk o lang-maned steid, The blae glaive glentin braw, Wi gowd on gairments bricht.    Nae canker ‘tween us twa Cuid ivver be, my fere, I’d leifer sing yer mense, In ballants douce an clere. The perk is slockt wi bluid, Afore the mairriage rive – Mait for the corbies aa, Afore the yirdin jyne.  Brave Owain, oor fere braw; Neth thae dreid corbies ligs, Dowf Marroe’s aesome loun, Sleeps i thae fremmit riggs.

About the poet David C Purdie is an elderly retired joiner turned insurance agent.  He is a keen member of the Penicuik Writers’ Group and has recently called time on 25 years service as a foot soldier in the tenor ranks of The Kevock Choir.  He has a wife, two daughters and two grandsons who give him much joy.  As a poet, he has been widely published and has won many awards over the years for his verse in both Scots and English.  His first collection, The Biggers And Other Poems, was published by Calder Wood Press last year and has been well received.  The same publisher has now brought out his translation into Scots of the classic ancient ode, Y Gododdin, by Aneirin.

Inspiration for the Poem David says he had been aware of the poem for a long time but had been under the impression that it belonged entirely to Wales.  It was on reading The Triumph Tree, Scotland’s earliest poetry, edited by Thomas Owen Clancy and published by Canongate in 1998, that it was brought home to him that the Gododdin and Aneirin, their bard, were Brythonic or Old Welsh speaking warriors who trained for the battle of Catraeth in a stronghold situated on the rock which now houses Edinburgh Castle.  There are several translations into English of Aneirin’s poem but it seemed to him fitting that a version in Scots, the successor tongue in southern Scotland should be produced.