Aonghas MacNeacail

English

Aonghas MacNeacail was a leading voice in Gaelic poetry for decades- a voice central to his poetry and to the departure in Gaelic verse that his work represents. MacNeacail took the innovations of Derick Thomson and Donald MacAulay a step farther, bring Gaelic verse into contact with a new-age sensibility, taking its place in the flowering of new forms of expression that characterised the 1960s.

Aonghas MacNeacail was born in Uig on the Isle of Skye on 7 June 1942, but lived for many years in the Scottish Borders with his wife, the actor, poet and singer Gerda Stevenson, and their family. His father was an able seaman on coastal freighters, who died of cancer when MacNeacail was eight. Attending Uig Primary School, ‘my first teacher’s first job … was to teach her tearful new charges a foreign language, which most of us would soon learn to speak better than our own’ (Spirits of the Age). He left Portree High School to try a variety of jobs, landing in Glasgow and finding at Langside College a teacher who introduced him to contemporary Gaelic and English poetry. Registered at birth as ‘Angus Nicolson’, he changed his name officially to its Gaelic form, but is often known simply as ‘Aonghas Dubh’ (‘Black Angus’). In Glasgow, he became part of Philip Hobsbaum’s writing group which included Alasdair Gray, James Kelman, Liz Lochhead and Tom Leonard. Known primarily as a poet, MacNeacail also worked as a songwriter, screen writer and librettist, a regular literary commentator in print and on Gaelic radio, and was a ready voice of encouragement for younger Gaelic writers.

  Writing in both languages, I considered English the medium for my
  ‘serious’ poetry. Being invited to take a writing fellowship at Sabhal
  Mor Ostaig, the Gaelic College, in 1977, turned me into a Gaelic
  Poet. A Fellowship at Glasgow University, in 1993, twenty-five years
  after I’d first matriculated there, turned me into a bilingual poet again.
  (Spirits of the Age)

The poets who established Gaelic free-verse in the post-war period were often quiet and introspective as they moved away from the more public, ritualistic forms of poetry such as song and prayer that still echoed in the work of Sorley MacLean and George Campbell Hay. By contrast, MacNeacail’s Gaelic verse made the individual poetic voice central to his poetry’s public role. While MacNeacail looked for examples in the Gaelic song-poets of previous generations – many of them women – his poetry’s closest affinities are with modern verse in English, particularly with the work of American poets, the Black Mountain School and the Beats, to whose work he was introduced by Tom McGrath. Like e e cummings, MacNeacail often avoids conventions such as capitalisation and punctuation which highlight the written nature of poetry as a product of the pen and the page. Instead, his verse presents itself as primarily oral, animated by the breath of the voice. MacNeacail’s third Gaelic collection, an seachnadh agus dàin eile / the avoiding and other poems (1986), opens with a short piece that introduces his poetic persona:

do ghuth a’ glaodhaich
foillsich thu fhéin
a charaid, is mise
an t-amadan naomh
am bàrd
amhairc is èisd rium

(‘your voice crying / reveal yourself // friend i am / the holy fool / the bard / observe and listen’, ‘bratach’ / ‘banner’, trans. Aonghas MacNeacail)

History is a central subject for MacNeacail, both in the sense of the story of people who came before and how that story can and should be told in the present. In the poem which gives its name to his 1996 collection, Oideachadh Ceart agus Dàin Eile, the speaker is presented as the bearer of his people’s history, in this case the history of eviction and exile suffered by Gaelic-speaking communities from the 18th century onwards:

nuair a bha mi òg,
cha b’eachdraidh ach cuimhne
nuair a thàinig am bàilidh, air each
air na mhathan a’ tilleadh a-nuas
às na buailtean len eallaichean frainich
’s a gheàrr e na ròpan on guailnean
a’ sgaoileadh nan eallach gu làr,
a’ dìteadh nam mnà, gun tug iad gun chead
an luibhe dhan iarradh e sgrios,
ach gum biodh na mnathan
ga ghearradh ’s ga ghiùlan gu dachaigh,
connlach stàile, gu tàmh nam bò
(is gun deachadh e màl às)

(‘when i was young / it wasn’t history but memory // when the factor, on horseback, came / on the woman’s descent from / the moorland grazings laden with bracken / he cut the ropes from their shoulders / spreading their loads to the ground, / alleging they took without permit / a weed he’d eliminate / were it not that women cut it and carried it home / for bedding to ease their cows’ hard rest; and there was rent in that weed’, trans. Aonghas MacNeacail)

In this poem ‘history’ is placed below ‘memory’, as passed down through songs and stories and embodied in the voice of the poet. While modern in the sense of being without rhyme or regular metre, the rhythm and the repetitions used in this poem suggest the work-songs of the vernacular Gaelic tradition, a crucial vehicle for the transmission of the memory MacNeacail describes.

In his later work, MacNeacail’s emphasis seems to shift from the centrality of the poetic voice to the stuff of poetry itself. Of the poems in his 2007 collection, Laoidh an Daonais Òg / Hymn to a Young Demon, perhaps ‘A’ Dèanamh Ìme’ (‘Making Butter’) best reflects its author’s mature respect for poetry as craft, for the patience necessary for its creation and the pleasure and value that can result:

chan eil a shamhla ann –
tionndadh ’s a’ tionndadh a’ ghileid òraich
am broinn dòrcha na h-eanchainn
ag èisteachd ri suirghe is
dealachadh is pòsadh
nan lid luasganach leaghtach
ag èisteachd airson nam boinne
blàthaich a’ sileadh air falbh o
ghramalas òrbhuidhe dàin

(‘there’s nothing like it – / turning and turning the golden whiteness / inside the darkness of the brain / listening to the wooings and / partings and weddings / of soluble tossed-about syllables / listening for the drops / of buttermilk trickling away from / the golden yellow firmness of a poem’, (trans. Aonghas MacNeacail)

Aonghas MacNeacail remains an influential figure for the Gaelic poets and prose writers who follow him. He often read abroad, where his bardic appearance and engaging contextualisation of his poems – as at home – made him a popular performer: ‘Scotland has a curious relationship with its Gaelic poets. It likes the fact that we’re there, so long as it doesn’t have to read us…. The rest of the world is more open to what we have to offer’ (Spirits of the Age). His knowledge of and respect for traditional Gaelic verse combined with his embrace of modern poetic techniques make his work a necessary bridge between the old and the new, the literary and the vernacular, Scotland and the world.

Gaelic

Bha guth Aonghais MhicNeacail buadhmhor ann am bàrdachd na Gàidhlig le ghuth fhèin mar phàirt deatamach den bhàrdachd aige agus den atharrachadh a tha air nochdadh anns a’ bhàrdachd aige. Ghabh MacNeacail ri nuadhasan Ruaraidh MhicThòmais agus Dòmhnall MhicAmhlaigh agus leasaich e iad, a’ cruthachadh ceangal eadar bàrdachd na Gàidhlig agus beachdan ‘new-age’, agus na nòsan ùra a dh’fhàs bho chruthachaileachd na 1960an.

Rugadh Aonghas MacNeacail ann an Ùige san Eilein Sgitheanaich air an 7mh den Ògmhìos, 1942, ach dh’fhuirich e anns na Crìochan airson iomadach bliadhna le bhean, an cleasaiche agus an t-seinneadair Gerda Stevenson, agus an teaghlach. Bha athair na mharaiche air soithichean-bathair agus dh’eug e bho aillse nuair nach robh MacNeacail ach ochd bliadhna a dh’aois. Chaidh e gu Bun-sgoil Ùige, mun tuirt e, ‘my first teacher’s first job… was to teach her tearful new charges a foreign language, which most of us would soon learn to speak better than our own’ (Spirits of the Age) Dh’fhàg e Àrd-sgoil Phort Rìgh agus rinn e iomadh seòrsa obrach. Lorg e e fhèin an Glaschu agus bha tidsear aige aig Colaiste Langside a thug gu aire bàrdachd na Gàidhlig agus na Beurla. Chaidh a chlàradh mar ‘Angus Nicolson’ air a theisteanas-breithe. Dh’atharraich e seo gu Aonghas MacNeacail gu laghail, ach tric aithnichear e mar Aonghas Dubh. Ann an Glaschu bha e na phàirt de bhuidheann-sgrìobhaidh Philip Hobsbaum le Alasdair Gray, James Kelman, Liz Lochhead agus Tom Leonard. Ged is aithne dhan mhòr-chuid MacNeacail mar bhàrd, sgrìobh e cuideachd òrain, sgrioptaichean agus libretti a sgrìobhadh, cuide ri bhith a’ sgrùdadh litreachais, agus bha e tric taiceil agus brosnachail do sgrìobhadairean òga.

Writing in both languages, I considered English the medium for my ‘serious’ poetry. Being invited to take a writing fellowship at Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gaelic College, in 1977, turned me into a Gaelic Poet. A Fellowship at Glasgow University, in 1993, twenty-five years  after I’d first matriculated there, turned me into a bilingual poet again.

Spirits of the Age

B’ ann tric sàmhach agus fèin-sgrùdail a bha na bàird a chleachd saor-rannaigheachd às dèidh an Dàrna Cogaidh is iad a’ gluasad air falbh bho bhàrdachd nas poblaiche a bha air buaidh a thoirt fiù ’s air saothair Shomhairle MhicGill-Eain agus Deòrsa Mhic Iain Deòrsa. Aocoltach ri sin, chuir bàrdachd Aonghais MhicNeacail cuideam air guth a’ bhàird mar neach fa leth.  Ged a bha buaidh aig bàird na Gàidhlig air a shaothair – agus gu h-àraidh bana-bhàird – ’s ann dlùth a tha a bhàrdachd ri nuadh-bhàrdachd na Beurla, gu sònraichte saothair nam bàrd Aimeirigeanach, an Black Mountain School agus na Beats, air an d’ fhuair e oideachadh bho Tom McGrath. Mar e e cummings, bhiodh MacNeacail tric a’ seachnadh cleachdaidhean mar cheann-litreachd agus phuingeachadh a bhios a’ toirt gu aire nàdar sgrìobhte na bàrdachd. An àite sin, tha a chuid bàrdachd tric ga riochdachadh fhèin mar rud a tha labhairteach, air a thoirt beò le anail a’ ghuth. Tha an treasamh cruinneachadh aig MacNeacail, an seachnadh agus dàin eile / the avoiding and other poems (1986), a’ tòiseachadh le dàn a tha a’ riochdachadh a phearsa bàrdail:

do ghuth a’ glaodhaich
foillsich thu fhéin
a charaid, is mise
an t-amadan naomh
am bàrd amhairc is èist rium

Tha eachdraidh cudromach ann am bàrdachd MhicNeacail, an dà chuid a thaobh nan daoine a thàinig roimhe agus air mar as urrainn agus mar a tha còir sgeulachd na h-eachdraidh innse anns an là an-diugh. Anns an dàn às an tàinig tiotal a’ chruinneachaidh aige an 1996, Oideachadh Ceart agus Dàin Eile, tha pearsa a’ bhàird air a riochdachadh mar neach-giùlain eachdraidh a shluaigh, eachdraidh a dh’fhuiling na Gàidheil  bhon 18mh linn tro fhuadachd agus fhògarrachd:

nuair a bha mi òg,
cha b’ eachdraidh ach cuimhne
nuair a thàinig am bàilidh, air each
air na mhathan a’ tilleadh a-nuas
às na buailtean len eallaichean frainich
’s a gheàrr e na ròpan on guailnean
a’ sgaoileadh nan eallach gu làr,
a’ dìteadh nam mnà, gun tug iad gun chead
an luibhe dhan iarradh e sgrios,
ach gum biodh na mnathan
ga ghearradh ’s ga ghiùlan gu dachaigh,
connlach stàile, gu tàmh nam bò
(is gun deachadh e màl às)

Tha ‘eachdraidh’ air a cur fo ‘cuimhne’ anns an dàn seo, mar a tha i air a giùlan tro òrain agus sgeulachdan agus air a toirt beò ann an guth a’ bhàird. Ged a tha an dàn ann an stoidhle nuadh, gun mheadrachd chunbhalach no comhardadh, tha ruitheam agus ath-aithris a’ toirt nar cuimhne òrain-obrach na Gàidhlig, cruth a ghiùlain an cuimhne air a bheil MacNeacail a-mach.

Anns an t-saothair as ùire a bh’ aige, chuir MacNeacail cuideam air a’ bhàrdachd fhèin. Am measg dhàn Laoidh an Daonais Òg (2007), dh’fhaoidte gur e ‘A’ Dèanamh Ìme’ as fheàrr a tha a’ sealltainn an urraim a bh’ aig MacNeacail do bhàrdachd mar cheàird, agus an fhoighdinn air a bheil feum airson bàrdachd a chruthachadh, agus an luach agus an tlachd a gheibhear às:

chan eil a shamhla ann –
tionndadh ’s a’ tionndadh a’ ghileid òraich
am broinn dòrcha na h-eanchainn
ag èisteachd ri suirghe is
dealachadh is pòsadh
nan lid luasganach leaghtach
ag èisteachd airson nam boinne
blàthaich a’ sileadh air falbh o
ghramalas òrbhuidhe dàin

Tha Aonghas MacNeacail fhathast na bhàrd buadhmhor airson bàird na Gàidhlig agus airson sgrìobhadairean Gàidhlig anns an fharsaingeachd. Bhiodh e tric a’ leughadh thall thairis, far a bheil cliù aige mar neach-leabhairt air sgàth a choltas bàirdeil agus mar a bhios e a’ mìneachadh nan dàn aige: ‘Scotland has a curious relationship with its Gaelic poets. It likes the fact that we’re there, so long as it doesn’t have to read us…. The rest of the world is more open to what we have to offer’ (Spirits of the Age). Tha an t-èolas a bh’ aige air, agus an t-urram a bh’ aige, do bhàrdachd na Gàidhlig, cuide ri mar a cleachd e bàrdachd nuadh, air drochaid a chruthachadh eadar an t-seann agus an nuadh, litearail agus cainnt na dùtcha, Alba agus an saoghal.