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  • Tilleadh bhon a’ bhas
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Tilleadh bhon a’ bhas

Derick Thomson

Nuair a thàinig mi air ais bhon a’ bhàs
bha a’ mhadainn ann,
bha an doras-cùil fosgailte,
is bha putan dhe na bha ’na mo lèine air chall.

B’ fheudar dhomh am feur a chùnntadh a-rithist,
is na leacan,
is dh’fhairich mi blas an ìm ùir air a’ bhuntàt’.

Bha ’n càr ag iarraidh peatroil,
’s an gaol ’na shuidhe gu stòlda air seuthar,
is tachais anns an iosgaid agam.

’S ma tha thu creidse mar tha mise
gun tuig fear-leughaidh leth-fhacal,
chì thu nach tug mi iomradh
ach air rud no dhà a dh’ fhairich mi.


Derick Thomson

from Smeur an Dochais/Bramble of Hope: poems by Derick Thomson (Canongate, 1991)

Reproduced by permission of the author.

Tags:

Gaelic Gaelic observation reading poetry rebirth translation Translations

Translations of this Poem

Return from death

Translator: Derick Thomson


When I came back from death
it was morning,
the back door was open
and one of the buttons of my shirt had disappeared.

I needed to count the grass-blades again,
and the flagstones,
and I got the taste of fresh butter on the potatoes.

The car needed petrol,
and love sat sedately on a chair,
and there was an itchy feeling at the back of my knee.

And if you believe, as I do,
that one who reads can understand half a word,
you can see that I’ve mentioned
only a couple of things I felt then.

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Derick Thomson1921 - 2012

No Gaelic poet has had more influence on the generation that followed him than Derick Thomson. As poet, publisher, and editor of the literary quarterly Gairm, Thomson shaped the development of Gaelic writing in the post-war period.
More about Derick Thomson

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