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Sgàilean

Rody Gorman

Air an t-slighe sìos
gu ruige ’n caladh anns a’ bhreacarsaich
agus an Western Isles a’ fuireach,
a lìon beag is beag,
chaidh na rionnagan às an t-sealladh.

Thall am bad
air choreigin, dh’fhairich mi fead.
Chaidh na h-eòin às.
Dh’fhàs an speur dearg.

Agus cuid aca, mun àm sin
agus an dà thràth ri dealachadh,
nach ann a bhuail iad anns an sgàilean
mar gun robh iad a’ feuchainn
ri cur às dhaibh fhèin.


Rody Gorman

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:

birds Gaelic Gaelic The Weaver's Task translation Translations Western Isles

Translations of this Poem

This evening

Translator: John Burnside


This evening
Walking down
To the harbour,
I pictured The Western Isles
Filling up, piece by piece,
As the stars went down.

Above the hull,
From somewhere, I heard
A whistle.
The birds disappeared,
The sky reddened,

And some of them,
Wild with flight,
Didn’t they crash against
The screen, like feathered
Suicides?

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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Rody Gormanb.1960

Rody Gorman was born in Dublin in 1960 and now lives on the Isle of Skye; he writes in and translates between, Irish and Scottish Gaelic.
More about Rody Gorman

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