An Sneachda mun a’ Chuilitheann / The Snow in the Cuillin
Tha fuachd mu do chridhe
Mar an sneachd mun a’ Chuilitheann
Ach gu bheil e air tòiseachadh
Air leaghadh is leaghadh
A-nisd agus an Giblean againn,
Your heart is cold
like the snow in the Cuillin
except that it’s started
bit by bit to melt
now that April’s here
Agus tha dòchas agam
Gum fàs na clachan
A tha na bhun
‘S a tha tuiteam beag air bheag
Far aodann sgaoilte nan creag
Nam beum
A sginneas air feadh na beinne
and I hope the rocks at the base
which are falling bit by bit
from the loosened rock face
become an explosion of stone
resounding through the mountain.
Translations of this Poem
Cuillini lumi
Translator: Doris Kareva
Sinu süda on külm
kui Cuillini lumi,
mis küll on vähehaaval
aprillis sulama hakand.
Ning ma loodan, et kivid,
mis muudkui murenevad
kalju küljest, kord purunevad
nii, et see mägedes kõlab.
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.
