Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Re-Opening FAQ
  • Poetry
    • Poems
    • Poets
    • Our National Poet
    • Podcasts
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Poetry and Mindfulness
    • Champions 2020
    • Posters
    • Publishers
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • National Poetry Day 2019
    • National Poetry Day archive
    • SQA set texts
    • Learning resources
    • New to poetry?
    • Advice for poets
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Exhibitions
    • Venue hire
    • List an event
  • Shop
    • National Poetry Day 2020
    • New Titles
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Pocket Poets
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Help
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Our projects
    • Jobs
    • Our building
    • FAQs
    • Find us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
    • Easy Fundraising
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Poetry
  • >
  • Meg Bateman
  • >
  • Toileachas
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

Toileachas

Meg Bateman

le taing do Niall

‘S tric a chunnaic mi iad a’ tighinn ri chèile,
dithis seann eòlach, dithis chroitearan,
is às dèidh dhaibh an latha a bheannachadh
seasaidh iad còmhla gun fhacal tuilleadh,
taobh ri taobh, chan ann aghaidh ri aghaidh,
is iad a’ coimhead a-mach air an talamh
a chumas na fhilltean an uile chuimhne,
a’ tarraing anail is cùbhraidheachd
tombaca, fuaradh is spùt nan uan,
‘s an t-eòlas ac’gun cuireadh cainnt
bacadh air a’ chomanachadh òrbhuidh ud,
gum briseadh i a-staigh air am mothachadh
air na th’ann de dhualchas eatarra


Meg Bateman

from Fair Wind/Soirbheas (Edinburgh: Polygon, 2007)

Reproduced by permission of the publisher.

Tags:

Best Scottish Poems 2007 communication friendship Gaelic

Translations of this Poem

Happiness

Translator: Meg Bateman


with thanks to Neil

Often have I seen them come together,
two old friends, two crofters,
who after a brief murmured greeting
will stand wordlessly together,
side by side, not facing each other,
and look out on the land whose
ways and memories unite them,
breathe in the air, and the scent of
tobacco and damp and lamb scour,
in the certain knowledge that talk
would hamper that expansive communion,
break in on their golden awareness
of all there is between them.

About this poem

This poem was included in Best Scottish Poems 2007. Best Scottish Poems is an online publication, consisting of 20 poems chosen by a different editor each year, with comments by the editor and poets. It provides a personal overview of a year of Scottish poetry. The editor in 2007 was Alan Spence.

Editor's comment:
I have no way of judging the Gaelic, but having heard Meg Bateman read aloud, I know the music of it is true. And the English version also sings, is alive with warmth and compassion, a genuine empathy with the two old friends, the old crofters depicted in the poem who stand wordlessly together yet share so much that is unspoken, that is in fact beyond words. It's a deceptively simple poem, a finger pointing at the moon. It's profound in its humanity, its seeing into the life of folk, and profound also in its awareness of silence, that realm in which talk / would hamper that expansive communion… Beautiful.

Author's note: 
My partner and I have long rambling 'pillow talks' on Sunday mornings. One morning we were discussing wordless communication, and how satisfying it is. We know it with animals and sometimes even with other people. Neil described a scene he remembers from his boyhood, still seen to this day, when crofters, who have grown up together and know each other so well they have little more to say to each other, nevertheless derive great pleasure from meeting, maybe at the sales or out on the common grazing. It isn't witticisms or information or ideas that they are communicating but something deeper, something to do with their identity, and with the world as they see it - place, livelihood and community all bound up together. They are not remotely embarrassed by silence - indeed they might be embarrassed by too much chatter. It would be a needless distraction.

It was about this time that I had been given the title 'Happiness' by Radio Scotland for a poem for National Poetry Day 2002. I suddenly realised I had a subject, and wrote the poem more or less as Neil had described the scene. Again I acknowledge his contribution and his perception. It's a little ironic that I need words to praise wordlessness. Poetry has an interesting relationship with silence.

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

Join

Become a Borrower or support our work by becoming a Friend of SPL.
Join us

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 2021.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
By leaves we live

The Scottish Poetry Library is staffed weekdays from 10am – 2pm and is providing a limited service including postal loans and Click & Collect. For details, click COVID-19 in the menu bar above. Dismiss