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  • An Sgrìobhaiche Gàidhlig
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An Sgrìobhaiche Gàidhlig

Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh

Mar chleasaiche-sorcais ann an cartùn-TV,
a’ dàibhigeadh le snasmhorachd ghlan
bho chòmhnard bheag 60 troigh a dh’ àirde
a-steach dha ghlainne làn bùirn.

Ri bas-bhualadh sgapte
bho chorra ròn.


Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh

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:

cartoons diving Gaelic Gaelic metaphor skill Surrealism swimming The Weaver's Task translation Translations writing poetry

Translations of this Poem

The Gaelic Writer

Translator: Robert Crawford


Like Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons
taking a pinpoint plunge
from a mile-high divingboard thin as a skelf
into a dramful of water

out here in front of a tiny audience
of halfhearted seals applauding.

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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Fearghas MacFhionnlaighb.1948

Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh is a Gaelic language poet and commentator.
More about Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh

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