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Scottish Poetry - Modern Gaelic Poets -
Sorley MacLean
Continuing this introduction to some well regarded and popular modern
Gaelic
poets, I must include Sorley MacLean to the names of Iain Crichton
Smith and George Campbell Hay.
I was privileged to attend a
gathering by the MacLean
Clan to hear Morag Lowe speak about Sorley
MacLean, the man and his works. As she was growing up, Morag was a
neighbour of Sorley MacLean. Morag gave a stimulating talk about
the social
influences at the time, his poetry and the importance in a Gaelic,
Scottish and European literary context.
Iain Crichton Smith translated
some works of Sorley MacLean from Gaelic into English.
Sorley MacLean :
Sorley MacLean
[Somhairle MacGill-Eain] was
born on 26th October in 1911 at Osgaig , into the majestic landscape of a small
Gaelic speaking community on the island of Raasay, which lies
between the Isle of Skye and the Scottish mainland. This Gaelic
upbringing, like many of his contemporaries, strongly influenced his
writing. One of his most celebrated poems is Hallaig about the enforced clearance of the inhabitants of the township of Hallaig
(Raasay).
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Hallaig |
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‘Tha tìm, am fiadh, an coille
Hallaig’
Tha bùird is tàirnean air an
uinneig
trom faca mi an Àird an Iar
’s tha mo ghaol aig Allt Hallaig
’na craoibh bheithe, ’s bha i riamh
eadar an t-Inbhir ’s Poll a’
Bhainne,
thall ’s a bhos mu Bhaile Chùirn:
tha i ’na beithe, ’na calltainn,
’na caorann dhìrich sheang ùir.
Ann an Sgreapadal mo chinnidh,
far robh Tarmad ’s Eachann Mòr,
tha ’n nigheanan ’s am mic ’nan coille
a’ gabhail suas ri taobh an lòin.
Uaibhreach a‑nochd na coilich
ghiuthais
a’ gairm air mullach Cnoc an Rà,
dìreach an druim ris a’ ghealaich –
chan iadsan coille mo ghràidh.
Fuirichidh mi ris a’ bheithe
gus an tig i mach an Càrn,
gus am bi am bearradh uile
o Bheinn na Lice fa sgàil.
Mura tig ’s ann theàrnas mi a
Hallaig
a dh’ionnsaigh sàbaid nam marbh,
far a bheil an sluagh a’ tathaich,
gach aon ghinealach a dh’fhalbh.
Tha iad fhathast ann a Hallaig,
Clann Ghill-Eain ’s Clann MhicLeòid,
na bh’ ann ri linn Mhic Ghille Chaluim:
chunnacas na mairbh beò.
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Sorley MacLean studied English at the University of
Edinburgh in the 1930s where he was powerfully affected by the
poetry of Hugh MacDiarmid.
However,
MacLean chose the Gaelic of his childhood rather than Scots.
MacDiarmid
brought into the tradition of Scots verse the consciousness both
philosophical and political, so MacLean revolutionised Gaelic
poetry.
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Hallaig |
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‘Time, the deer, is in the wood of
Hallaig’
The window is nailed and boarded
through which I saw the West
and my love is at the Burn of Hallaig,
a birch tree, and she has always been
between Inver and Milk Hollow,
here and there about Baile-Chuirn:
she is a birch, a hazel,
a straight, slender young rowan.
In Screapadal of my people
where Norman and Big Hector were,
their daughters and their sons are a wood
going up beside the stream.
Proud tonight the pine cocks
crowing on the top of Cnoc an Ra,
straight their backs in the moonlight –
they are not the wood I love.
I will wait for the birch wood
until it comes up by the cairn,
until the whole ridge from Beinn na Lice
will be under its shade.
If it does not, I will go down to
Hallaig,
to the Sabbath of the dead,
where the people are frequenting,
every single generation gone.
They are still in Hallaig,
MacLeans and MacLeods,
all who were there in the time of Mac Gille Chaluim:
the dead have been seen alive.
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Sorley MacLean lived on the island of
Mull in 1938, teaching at Tobermory High School. During this time he
wrote a number of poems, among them the well-known ‘Ban-Ghàidheal’
(A Highland Woman), which made its first appeared in "The Voice of
Scotland" in 1938.
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Ban-Ghàidheal
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Am faca Tu i, Iùdhaich mhòir,
rin abrar Aon Mhac Dhè?
Am fac’ thu ’coltas air Do thriall
ri strì an fhìon-lios chèin?
An cuallach mheasan air a druim,
fallas searbh air mala is gruaidh;
’s a’ mhias chreadha trom air cùl
a cinn chrùbte bhochd thruaigh.
Chan fhaca Tu i, Mhic an t-saoir,
rin abrar Rìgh na Glòir,
am measg nan cladach carrach siar,
fo fhallas cliabh a lòin.
An t-earrach seo agus seo chaidh
’s gach fichead earrach bhon an tùs,
tharraing ise ’n fheamainn fhuar
chum biadh a cloinne ’s duais an tùir.
’S gach fichead foghar tha air triall
chaill i samhradh buidh nam blàth;
is threabh an dubh-chosnadh an clais
tarsainn mìnead ghil a clàir.
Agus labhair T’ eaglais chaomh
mu staid chaillte a h-anama thruaigh;
agus leag an cosnadh dian
a corp gu sàmhchair dhuibh an uaigh.
Is thriall a tìm mar shnighe dubh
a’ drùdhadh tughaidh fàrdaich bochd;
mheal ise an dubh-chosnadh cruaidh;
is glas a cadal suain a-nochd.
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Those that heard Sorley MacLean
have found the
sound of his verse immensely moving, though they are without Gaelic.
Seamus Heaney wrote 'MacLean's voice had a certain bardic weirdness
that sounded both stricken and enraptured'.
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A Highland
Woman |
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Hast Thou seen her, great Jew,
who art called the One Son of God?
Hast Thou seen on Thy way the like of her
labouring in the distant vineyard?
The load of fruits on her back,
a bitter sweat on brow and cheek,
and the clay basin heavy on the back
of her bent poor wretched head.
Thou hast not seen her, Son of the
carpenter,
who art called the King of Glory,
among the rugged western shores
in the sweat of her food’s creel.
This Spring and last Spring
and every twenty Springs from the beginning,
she has carried the cold seaweed
for her children’s food and the castle’s reward.
And every twenty Autumns gone
she has lost the golden summer of her bloom,
and the Black Labour has ploughed the furrow
across the white smoothness of her forehead.
And Thy gentle church has spoken
about the lost state of her miserable soul,
and the unremitting toil has lowered
her body to a black peace in a grave.
And her time has gone like a black
sludge
seeping through the thatch of a poor dwelling:
the hard Black Labour was her inheritance;
grey is her sleep tonight.
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Sorley MacLean
was
instrumental in preserving and promoting the teaching of Gaelic in
Scottish schools. Through the diverse subject matter of his poetry,
he demonstrates the capacity of the Gaelic language to express
themes from the personal to the political and philosophical.
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Ceann Loch Aoineart
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Cómhlan bheanntan, stóiteachd
bheanntan,
córr-lios bheanntan fásmhor,
cruinneachadh mhullaichean,
thulaichean, shiéibhtean,
tighinn 'sa' bheucaich ghábhaidh.
Eirigh ghleanntan, choireachan údlaidh,
laighe 's a' bhúirich chrácaich;
sineadh chluaineagan, shuaineagan
srúlach,
briodal 's an dúbhlachd ársaidh.
Eachdraidh bheanntan, marcachd
mhullaichean,
deann-ruith shruthanach cáthair,
sleamhnachd leacannan, seangachd
chreachainnean,
strannraich leacanach árd-bheann.
Onfhadh-chrios muhullaichean,
confhadh-shlios thulaichean,
monmhar luim thurraidean mársail,
gorm-shliosan Mhosgaraidh,
stoirm-shliosan mosganach,
borb-bhiodan mhonaidhean árda.
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Sorley Maclean,
never a full time poet, received many goals and awards in his
lifetime, among them The Queens Gold Medal for Poetry in 1990 and he
is commemorated in Makars' Court, outside The Writers' Museum,
Lawnmarket, Edinburgh.
The Makars' Court is the paved area next to the Scottish
Writers' Museum in Lady Stair's Close in Edinburgh, Scotland. The
stone slabs of the court are inscribed with the names of Makars.
Selections for Makars' Court are made by The Writers' Museum; The
Saltire Society; The Scottish Poetry Library
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Kinloch Ainort
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A company of mountains, an upthrust of
mountains
a great garth of growing mountains
a concourse of summits, of knolls, of
hills
coming on with a fearsome roaring.
A rising of glens, of gloomy corries,
a lying down in the antlered
bellowing;
a stretching of green nooks, of brook
mazes,
prattling in the age-old mid-winter.
A cavalry of mountains, horse-riding
summits,
a streaming head long haste of foam,
a slipperiness of smooth flat rocks,
small-bellied bare summits,
flat-rock snoring of high mountains.
A surge-belt of hill-tops,
impetuous thigh of peaks,
the murmuring bareness of marching
turrets,
green flanks of Mosgary,
crumbling storm-flanks,
barbarous pinnacles of high moorlands
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Sorley Maclean died on 24th November
1996 at the age of 85, and is buried in the cemetery in front of
Àros, south of Portree on the Isle of Skye, Scotland.
There is much more to know about Sorley MacLean
and his life, I hope that you will seek out his poetry and have added a
link to his official website.
Leughadh Math! .
Links to Scottish
Poets :
:
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