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  • Air sràidean Ghlaschu: 17
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Air sràidean Ghlaschu: 17

Derick Thomson

’Nam shuidh’ anns a’ chafe,
is dithis chaileag air taobh eile a’ bhùird,
dh’fhairich mi teas nan deur
air chùl mo rasgan;
cha b ’e na failbheagan beaga
a bha ’nan cluasan,
no ’n fhàinne shaor a bh’ air an dara tè,
’s cha b’ e buileach an t-aodach
ged a bha e mar a bhà e:
’s ann a bha eagal orm ron an àm ri teachd
is cràdh,
ann am meadhan Ghlaschu,
nach cumadh gràdh no gaisgeached
na cridheachan sin gun seargadh.
Bha sin ann ’s tha mi creidsinn
rudan eile.


Derick Thomson

from Dreuchd An Fhigheadair / The Weaver’s Task: a Gaelic Sampler, edited and introduced by Crìsdean MhicGhilleBhàin/Christopher Whyte (Scottish Poetry Library, 2007)

Reproduced by permission of the author.

Tags:

cafés change Gaelic Gaelic Glasgow Scots Scots The Weaver's Task translation Translations

Translations of this Poem

Sat in the café

Translator: W. N. Herbert


Sat in the café opposite
twa lasses
Eh felt the daft heat o tears
catch meh lashes.
It wisnae thir sma wee earrings nor
the cheapie ring ane wore,
and it wisnae jist because thir claes
were nithin special.
Eh wis feart at hoo the future comes
and gets you — it hurt
i thi hert o Glescae
that luve nor courage
wad stey thi wither fae
these twa herts.
That, and certain ither maitters,
bathirt meh heid.

About this poem

This poem and the translation or ‘response’ were published in Dreuchd An Fhigheadair / The Weaver’s Task: a Gaelic Sampler, edited by Christopher Whyte, and published by the Scottish Poetry Library in 2007. Seven Scottish poets with no knowledge of Gaelic were offered literal versions of contemporary Gaelic poems. Their responses were published alongside the Gaelic  originals in the book, and can also be read on the website collected under the tag: The Weaver’s Task.

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Derick Thomson1921 - 2012

No Gaelic poet has had more influence on the generation that followed him than Derick Thomson. As poet, publisher, and editor of the literary quarterly Gairm, Thomson shaped the development of Gaelic writing in the post-war period.
More about Derick Thomson

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