Meg Bateman

Gaelic

Chuir a’ chiad chruinneachadh aig Meg Bateman, Òrain Ghaoil / Amhráin Grá, iongnadh air cuid nuair a nochd e, le eadar-theangachaidhean dhan Ghaeilge, an 1990. B’ e guth òg, prìobhaideach, agus caran mì-chinnteach a nochd anns an leabhar, agus i a’ giùlan nan leughadairean tro chuspairean gaoil, agus gu h-àraidh, briseadh dùil. Tha rudeigin rùnach mun leabhar, rud a tha air a chur an cèill le cànan a’ chruinneachaidh.

An coimeas ri luchd-leughaidh na Beurla, b’ e glè bheag de dh’àireamh a b’ urrainn an leabhar a leughadh. Tha seo air toirt air cuid a ràdh gum b’ urrainn dhi a bhith ag ràdh barrachd rudan pearsanta na bhiodh an dùil anns a’ Bheurla, leis nach leughadh a’ mhòr-shluagh e, rudan cho pearsanta ris na chìtheadh ann an leabhar-latha. Ann an Dùn Èideann aig deireadh an 20mh linn, chanadh cuid gun robh sgrìobhadh anns a’ Ghàidhlig feumail airson an dà chuid dubh-chàineadh agus caisgireachd a sheachnadh.

Rugadh Meg Bateman an Dùn Èideann an 1959 and thogadh i anns a’ Bhaile Ùr. Rannsaich i Gàidhlig aig Oilthigh Obar Dheathain agus rinn i ollamhachd ann am bàrdachd chràbhach na Gàidhlig Clasaigiche. Thòisich i a’ bhàrdachd aice fhèin a’ sgrìobhadh anns a’ Ghàidhlig aig an àm seo. Bha i a’ teagasg aig Oilthigh Obar Dheathain bho 1991 gu 1998. Ghluais i an uair sin dhan Eilean Sgitheanach, far a bheil i a’ fuireach le mac agus a’ teagasg aig an t-Sabhal Mhòr.
Le tiotal a ciad chruinneachadh, Òrain Ghaoil, bha Bateman a’ freagairt cleachdadh ann am bàrdachd far a bheil a’ chiad chruinneachadh aig bàrd daonnan mu ghaol, ged nach eil na sgilean sgrìobhaidh no an gliocas aig a’ bhàrd fhathast airson deiligeadh ris a’ chuspair. Ged a tha Bateman a’ gabhail ris a’ bheachd seo an Òrain Ghaoil, chan eil dìth gliocais no eòlais idir anns na pìosan bàrdachd as tràithe a sgrìobh i. Tha i mionaideach a thaobh structair, agus tha sgaradh ann eadar dè cho foirfe ’s a tha cruth nan dàn agus dè cho làn mhearachdan ’s a tha an luchd-gaoil air a bheil i a-mach anns na dàin. Tha an sgaradh seo, eadar na tha fìor agus na bhiodh sàr-mhiannaichte, na bhunait ann an aon de na dàin as ainmeile aice, ‘Aotromachd’:

B’e t’ aotromachd a rinn mo thàladh,
aotromachd do chainnt is do ghàire,
aotromachd do lethchinn nam làmhan,
t’ aotromachd lurach ùr mhàlda;
agus ’s e aotromachd do phòige
tha a’ cur trasg air mo bheòil-sa,
’s ’s e aotromachd do ghlaic mum chuairt-sa
a leigeas leis an t-sruth mi.

Am measg bàird an ama a nochd Òrain Ghaoil, tha Bateman àraid ann a bhith a’ cleachdadh còmhardadh. Tha ceangal mar sin air a dhèanamh eadar na dàin seo agus òrain na Gàidhlig, anns a bheil boireannaich air an deagh riochdachadh mar òranaichean agus mar ghuthan òran. Ged nach d’ fhuair boireanannich a-steach do bhàird phroifeiseanta an 17mh linn, bha an guth rin cluinntinn an dèidh seo. ’S urrainnear ceangal a dhèanamh eadar ‘A’ chionn ’s gu robh mi measail air’, agus òrain luaidh, leis gu bheil loidhne a’ tilleadh àm agus a-rithist mar a chluinneadh ann an òran den leithid:

Thigeadh e thugam
nuair a bha e air mhisg
          a’ chionn ’s gu robh mi measail air.

Dhèanainn tì dha
is dh’èisdinn ris
         a’ chionn ’s gu robh mi measail air.

Sguir e a dh’òl
is rinn mi gàirdeachas leis
        a’ chionn ’s gu robh mi measail air.

Nist cha tig e tuilleadh
is nì e tàir orm
        a’ chionn ’s gu robh mi measail air.

Cha do mhair ceòlmhorachd nan dàn seo nuair a chaidh an eadar-theangachadh dhan Bheurla airson Aotromachd agus Dàin Eile, an dàrna cruinneachadh aice, an 1997. Chaillear an tuigse gun robh guth a’ bhàird am measg nan guthan gun urra a bha ri chluinntinn ann an còmhardadh a dàin. Bha guth na bana-bhàird nas aonranaiche anns a’ Bheurla na bha i anns a’ Ghàidhlig.

Bha deich bliadhna ann eadar Aotromachd agus an treas cruinneachadh aice, Soirbheas (2007). Ach leis gun robh iomadh dàn bhon chiad chruinneachadh aice anns an dàrna cruinneachadh cuideachd, cha robh e follaiseach do chuid dìreach dè cho fada ’s a bha air a dhol seachad eadar dàin an dàrna leabhair agus toiseach an treasamh fear. ’S e bàrd eadar-dhealaichte a th’ ann am Bateman Soirbheas, an coimeas ri Òrain Ghaoil agus Aotromachd. Anns an treas cruinneachadh, tha saor-rannaigheachd na phailteas, an coimeas ri còmhardadh meadrachail a’ chiad dà chruinneachaidh aice. Tha seo cuideachd a’ lùghdachadh an astair eadar na dàin Ghàidhlig aice agus na h-eadar-theangachaidhean Beurla a sgrìobh i. Tha Soirbheas cuideachd a’ gabhail barrachd ùidh ann am feallsanachd. Ann an ‘Ceòl san Eaglais’, tha coimeas air a dhèanamh eadar mearachdan an duine agus foirfeachd Dhè:

Ach is annsa leam an coithional nach seinn ach meadhanach –
an seinneadair nach buail air na puingean àrda,
an tè a cheileireas os cionn nan uile,
an t-òrganaiche a thòisicheas air rann a bharrachd

Tha fèill mhòr air Meg Bateman, agus thathar tric ga h-iarraidh aig tachartasan leughaidh agus aig fèisean litreachais. Tha guth a bàrdachd air luchd-leughaidh a thàladh bho shaoghal na Gàidhlig agus nas fhaide air falbh, agus thathar a’ tuigsinn na tha i air cur ri bàrdachd na Gàidhlig bho na 1990an chun an latha an-diugh.

English

A sense of novelty struck many readers when Meg Bateman’s first collection Òrain Ghaoil / Amhráin Grá was published, with facing Irish translations by Alex Osborne, in 1990. Here was a young, private and slightly insecure voice which took her readers into confidence on matters of love, its disappointments in particular. There is something conspiratorial about the book, something made possible by the author’s choice of language.

Readers of these poems were already part of a small group connected to the author by language and could, presumably, be trusted not to breach her confidence. Publishing poetry in Gaelic in Scotland is a subtly less public activity than publishing poetry in English or Scots. Like a diary shared among friends, these poems could be passed around without fear of their being read by the wrong person. In the Edinburgh of the late twentieth century, Gaelic was a means to avoid both censure and censorship.

Meg Bateman was born in Edinburgh in 1959 and grew up in the city’s New Town. She studied Gaelic at Aberdeen University and went on to achieve a doctorate in Classical Gaelic religious poetry. She began to write her own poetry in Gaelic at the same time. She taught at Aberdeen University from 1991 to 1998 before moving to Skye, where she lives with her son and teaches at the Gaelic college there, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.

The title of her first book (‘Love Songs’) took on the cliché of the debut collection about love, where the poet lacks the technical ability or maturity to address this most well-worn of subjects. But despite the persona adopted by Bateman in Òrain Ghaoil, there is nothing immature about the execution of her early poems. The mask she wears here belies a strict, even ruthless sense of form. Her work often achieves its poignancy from the distance between the merciless perfection some of her finely-chiselled poems aspire to, and the all-too-human lovers who fail, inevitably, to measure up. This contrast, between the real and the ideal structures one of her best-known poems, ‘Aotromachd’ (‘Lightness’):

B’ e t’ aotromachd a rinn mo thàladh,
aotromachd do chainnt is do ghàire,
aotromachd do lethchinn nam làmhan,
t’aotromachd lurach ùr mhàlda;
agus ’s e aotromachd do phòige
tha a’ cur trasg air mo bheòil-sa,
’s ’s e aotromachd do ghlaic mum chuairt-sa
a leigeas leis an t-sruth mi.

The Bateman of Òrain Ghaoil is unusual among her contemporaries in her use of rhyme, which links her poems to the tradition of popular Gaelic song. In these songs, Bateman finds a precedent for a feminine voice in Gaelic poetry. While entry into the professional caste of poets who dominated Gaelic culture until the seventeenth century was entirely closed to women, the anonymous, vernacular song tradition that survived the destruction of the bardic system often spoke with a female voice. In ‘A’ chionn ‘s gu robh mi measail air’ (‘Because I was so fond of him’), the refrain at the end of each stanza mimics the form of a working-song, in which a repeated line would be sung by a group of women, the rest by the solo singer:

Thigeadh e thugam
nuair a bha e air mhisg
          a’ chionn ’s gu robh mi measail air.

Dhèanainn tì dha
is dh’èisdinn ris
         a’ chionn ’s gu robh mi measail air.

Sguir e a dh’òl
is rinn mi gàirdeachas leis
        a’ chionn ’s gu robh mi measail air.

Nist cha tig e tuilleadh
is nì e tàir orm
        a’ chionn ’s gu robh mi measail air.

Little of the musicality of these early poems survived translation into English when they were republished in Aotromachd agus Dàin Eile in 1997. What was lost was the sense that the poet’s voice was joined by those other anonymous voices who echoed through her rhymes. Meg Bateman in English was a much lonelier poet than her counterpart in Gaelic.

Ten years separated Aotromachd and the publication of Bateman’s third collection, Soirbheas, in 2007. But the earlier publication of many of the poems in her second collection, obscured the distance in time between the composition of Bateman’s early and later poetry. The Bateman of Soirbheas is a different poet to the Bateman of her early work. In her third collection, free-verse largely replaces the melodic rhyming of her first two books, reducing in the process the distance between her Gaelic poems and the English versions she writes to accompany them. Gone too is some of the idealism of her younger poetry. Where previously the flawed nature of human relationships was a cause for regret, in Soirbheas Bateman is more philosophical. In ‘Ceòl san Eaglais’ (‘Music in Church’), Bateman makes a virtue of human imperfection in the face of the divine:

Ach is annsa leam an coithional nach seinn ach meadhanach –
an seinneadair nach buail air na puingean àrda,
an tè a cheileireas os cionn nan uile,
an t-òrganaiche a thòisicheas air rann a bharrachd

Meg Bateman is among the most popular of contemporary Gaelic poets, and is much in demand at readings and literary festivals. The persona she presents in her poems has attracted readers from within and outwith Gaelic Scotland, who continue to value the qualities she has brought to Gaelic poetry since the 1990s.