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dàn

Aonghas MacNeacail

sgrìobh thu air m’ anam
do nàdur, a bhidse gun chridhe, is dhùin
thu an leabhar gu grad mus d’ ràinig
sinn deireadh ar sgeulachd

dh’fhuasgail is leig thu air falbh mi mar dhuilleag
bha seargte, a’ tionndadh a-null gu craobh ùr
gheibh esan an ceudna a spìonadh
mus seac thu às m’ inntinn-s’

mar ghalla fo choin rinn thu leum
bho aon chlais gu clais eile:
toirt dhomh adhbhair cho ciallach ri comhart
rinn thu m’ fhàgail

ach, a ghaoil, ged a shracainn mo chridhe
cha sgrìob mi às d’ àilleachd, fras earraich
do ghàire, drùdhadh do chniadaich, nas mìlse
na mil, do phuinnsean, gam thachdadh


Aonghas MacNeacail

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:

fashion Gaelic Gaelic graffiti sexuality the body The Weaver's Task translation Translations

Translations of this Poem

poem/song/destiny

Translator: David Kinloch


you spraycanned my soul
with your heartcore bitch
graffiti when the wall ran out

crumbled into wee fritters
of cement and blue and red paint;
so you picked a brand new

john’s syntaxoscopic interface;
he’s already bulldozed
and your guff clings on eternally;

heat dogg, heartmonger, boy
bitch, you scuffed back earth
from ditch to ditch;

left me barking
as bad as your bite
and limp

but even if I harpooned my dick
I won’t howk out your beauty
the spring spatter of your laughter

the palimpsest tattoo
left by your fingers

grindcore at my throat
your puckered evil
little flower
sucking up my face

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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Aonghas MacNeacailb.1942

Aonghas MacNeacail has been a leading voice in Gaelic poetry for decades, as poet, and as a regular literary commentator in print and on Gaelic radio. He is also a songwriter, screen writer and librettist.
More about Aonghas MacNeacail

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