Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • Poetry
    • Poets
    • Poems
    • Makar – National Poet
      • Our Waking Breath: A Poem-letter from Scotland to Ukraine
      • A Woman’s A Woman
      • The story of the Makar – National Poet of Scotland
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Spiorad an Àite
      Spirit of Place
    • The Trysting Thorns
    • Poetry Ambassadors
      Tosgairean na Bàrdachd
      • Poetry Commissions: Walter Scott 250
        Coimiseanan Bàrdachd: Walter Scott 250
      • Poetry Ambassadors 2021
    • Poetry Ambassadors 2020
    • Posters
    • Podcasts
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • SQA set texts
    • Learning resources
    • Designing sensory poetry activities
    • Children’s poems in Scots
    • National Poetry Day archive
    • New to poetry?
    • Advice for poets
  • Events
    • What’s On
    • Meeting rooms and venue hire
    • Exhibitions
  • Shop
    • Poetry Highlights
    • Entropie Books
    • Stichill Marigold Press
    • Poems for Doctors, Nurses & Teachers
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Help
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Jobs
    • Company Papers & Policies
    • Our projects
    • Our building
    • FAQs
    • Find us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Poetry
  • >
  • Meg Bateman
  • >
  • Loch Coimpiutair: Dàn Gaoil
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

Loch Coimpiutair: Dàn Gaoil

Meg Bateman

’S e m’ eudail Loch an Iomair, paisgte sa mhòintich,
gu h-àrd sna slèibhtean eadar gàirdeanan creige,
an t-uisge-meirgidh ga shàthadh le flùr an lochain –
agus thig thu fom aire, mar a thig thu,
chan ann air sgàth duinnead do shùilean,
no gilead a’ chanaich air do lèintean-sgoile,
ach air sgàth guirm’ an lochain is guirme m’ iargain
agus guirm’ a’ choimpiutair nuair a chuireas mi air e
gus an tum mi gun fhiost’ dhan t-saoghal eile
far am bi an solas a’ fiaradh air craiceann-circe
is algairimean a’ chiad ghaoil a’ builgeadh on ghrunnd
is a’ plaosgadh air an uachdar nam fàinnean tearra is airgid.


Meg Bateman

Reproduced by permission of the author

Tags:

Gaelic Gaelic landscape Love Translations

Translations of this Poem

Loch Computer: A Love Poem

Loch an Iomair’s my treasure, cradled in sphagnum
high in the hills between arms of rock
with lobelia pricking its peaty waters –
and I think of you, as I do,
not for the brown of your eyes
nor the bog cotton white of your school shirts,
but for the blue of the loch and of my longing
and the blue of the computer when I turn it on
to plunge unobserved to that Otherworld
of refracted lights slanting on gooseflesh,
where love’s first algorithms bubble from the mould
and burst on the surface in rings of pitch and silver.

Share this
Facebook
Twitter
Email

Learn more

Meg Batemanb.1959

Meg Bateman has been bringing new qualities to Gaelic poetry since her first publications in the 1990s.
More about Meg Bateman

Newsletter

Sign up for our regular email newsletter.
Subscribe now

Podcasts

Our audio programme of poets, poems and news for you to listen to.
Listen Now
  • Newsletter signup
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2022.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
Scottish Poetry Library