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#scots

8 posts6 participants0 posts today
Public
Assoc for Scottish Literature

Your carolan’s blythe, bricht bird i the blackthorn bou,
this braw Voar morn, wi trill eftir spirlan trill,
tho you only ken the warld as it liggs the nou,
an nocht but a glisk concerns your chatteran bill…

—Maurice Lindsay, “On Hearin a Merle Singan (Arbroath Day, April 6th, 1946)”
published in A KIST O SKINKLAN THINGS (ASL, 2017)

asls.org.uk/publications/books

Maurice Lindsay On Hearin a Merle Singan (Arbroath Day, April 6th, 1946) Your carolan’s blythe, bricht bird i the blackthorn bou, this braw Voar morn, wi trill eftir spirlan trill, tho you only ken the warld as it liggs the nou, an nocht but a glisk concerns your chatteran bill. You feel the warm sun kissan your sparklan breist, sea-green it glints as you dirl your feathered thrapple, naithin mindit o things afore or neist wi whilk, on this day o days, I try tae grapple. Tae you, the Simmer’s come, sin the blue-gers glitters, an spinnan-Maggies stoiter aboot the lawn. It micht be sae, sin for days there’s no been a spitter o rain tae sloke the drouth o the yird’s dry pawn. Yet, fegs, the sun’s made you luik gey gilliegawky! Gin ye only kennt, there’s snaw i the heich hills yet. Ye’re no faur-seean, bird, lik the leathern baukie wha although he’s blin’s nae perturbed by the cauld or the het. As I hear you singan, merle, aa the thwartit flames o my luve for Scotland loup i my waefu hert, an six-hunnert-years-auld bluid reenges roun my veins till my stangit heid’s agley wi an orra smert ... But maist folk in Scotland noo hae the baukie’s een, caran for nocht that isnae smoorit in derk: an tho they wad praise your sang for its happy shein, at the thocht o the snaw i the hills their sauls aye lerk!
#Scottish#literature#20thcentury
Public
Assoc for Scottish Literature

Ayont the linn; ayont the linn,
Whaur gowdan wags the gorse,
A gowk gaed cryin’: “Come ye in:
I’ve fairins in my purse…”

—William Soutar, “The Gowk”
in Collected Published Poetry, @tippermuirbooks.bsky.social 2024

April Fool’s Day is Huntigowk Day in Scotland (“gowk” is a cuckoo &, by extension, a foolish person)

tippermuirbooks.co.uk/product/

The Gowk William Soutar Ayont the linn; ayont the linn, Whaur gowdan wags the gorse, A gowk gaed cryin’: “Come ye in: I’ve fairins in my purse. My bield is o’ the diamond stane Wi’ emerant atween: My bonnie een are yours alane, An’ rubies are my een.” My faither brak a sauchy stick; My mither wal’d a stane: An’ weel l set it for the trick Tae mak the gowk my ain. The stane was set; the shot was shot; The flichterin’ burd was fund: But nocht aboot that lanely spot O’ gowd or diamond. It had nae siller for a croun; Nae rubies for its een: But a the crammasy ran doun Whaur aince its breist had been. I look’t; an’ there was nane tae see The fairin I had taen: I hung it on a roden-tree An’ left it a’ alane.
#Scottish#literature#poem
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