Lanarkshire
your voice is the souch o the wind throu birks
your voice is the breath of the wind through birches
your licht is the hard frost at the side o the field
your light is the hard frost at the side of the field
your hair the roost on a covenanter’s sword
your hair the rust on a covenanter’s sword
sometimes your heid is thackit wi craws
sometimes your head is thatched with crows
the wind gars them reeshle
the wind makes them ripple
like fields o bleck wheat
like fields of black wheat
the lanimer fair cries me
the lanimer fair calls to me
thir merkin stanes is cauld
these marking stones are cold
fugged wi moss
obscured by moss
happit by stoor
covered in dust
sooked slowly doon intae the grund they came fae
sucked slowly down into the ground they came from
you are a border ghost
you are a border ghost
you flit fae me like words o a ballad
you escape me like the words of a ballad
i’ll no can follae you
I cannot follow you
but like a bowsey butcher on a puggled horse
but like an overfed butcher on a worn-out horse
i will ride a lanimer roond your hert
I will ride the marches around your heart
Translations of this Poem
Lanarkshire
Translator: Doris Kareva
sinu hääl on tuuleõhk läbi kaskede
sinu valgus on külmakahutus põlluveeres
sinu juuksed on rooste lepinglase mõõgal
vahel su pea kihab varestest
tuul lööb nad lainetama
kui mustava nisupõllu
lanimeri laat hüüab mind
need piirikivid on külmad
samblasse kasvanud
tolmusse tõmbund
aeglaselt imbunud tagasi maasse
kust nad kord tulid
sina piirivaim oled
sa kaod mu käest kui ballaadi sõnad
ei jõua ma järele sulle
aga kui ülesöönd lihunik nõrkeval setukal
ratsutan piirimail ümber su südame
About this poem
‘Voyages & versions / Tursan is Tionndaidhean’ was the title of the translation workshop run by the Scottish Poetry Library and Literature Across Frontiers 12-18 May 2003. The group consisted of Petr Borkovec (Czech Republic), Mererid Puw Davies (Wales), Jakub Ekier (Poland), Matthew Fitt (Scotland), Rody Gorman (Scotland), Milan Jesih (Slovenia), Doris Kareva (Estonia), Esther Kinsky (England) and Aled Llion (Wales). The group spent days at Moniack Mhor writing centre in the Highlands, returned to the Library in Edinburgh and went up to Dundee Contemporary Arts, and gave multi-lingual readings, producing what was, in effect, an hour’s sound-poem. Several of the poets mentioned their sense of renewed faith in poetry – how refreshed they felt by the chance to look closely at their own and others’ work in company with people whose aesthetics might be quite different but whose skills and passion were recognisably similar.
