Bàrdachd a’ Bhaile Mhòir: 15 Glasgow Poems (deasaichte le Niall O’Gallagher)

Dà Shùil Air Craoibh

Ruaraidh MacThòmais

Bha a’ chraobh seo agam na mo leas an Glaschu: i rudeigin sean, rud beag crùbach, ’s cho breac le cnapan ri tè a chunnaic mi riamh: at anns na h-altan, tighead a’ cur nam meur às an cruth, bòcadh cruinn-thimcheall a crann (no ’s dòcha air a leth-chois), mulchagan tòcaidh air a bodhaig ’s an rùsg ac’ carrach, piocte, preasan air a com, riofanaich aig ceann nam meur. Siataig is aois is aillse, an dùil? Ach bha mi ceàrr:

’S ann a bha i a’ toirt aoigheachd do theaghlaichean mhion-chreutairean a bha dèanamh an dachaigh na broilleach, le ’n drip ’s an sgoinn fhèin a’ sìor sgaoileadh ’s a’ teannadh.

’S ri tìde thàinig duilleach is gucag is flùr, a’ sgaoileadh am brat fionnar mun cuairt oirr’, ’s as t-fhoghar dearcagan dearga, is chuir mi fàilte uair eile air caorann an fhortain.

*

Two Views Of A Tree

Derick Thomson

There was a tree in my Glasgow garden: kind of old, a bit bent and as covered with lumps as any tree I ever saw: swelling joints, thickness deforming branches/fingers, a bulging right round its trunk (or perhaps its one left), protuberances like cheeses on its body with their bark rough and dented, wrinkles on its breast, peeling skin on the twig-ends. Arthritis and age and cancer perhaps? But I was wrong:

Rather it was playing host to families of tiny creatures making their home in its breast, and actively, busily multiplying, packing themselves in.

In due course there came leaf and bud and flower spreading their fresh covering around it, and in autumn red berries, and I gave welcome once again to the rowan that brings good fortune.

         Translated by the author  

Niall O’Gallagher is the author of three collections of poetry published by CLÀR and of Fuaimean Gràidh: Dàin Taghta / The Sounds of Love: Selected Poems (Francis Boutle 2023). A verse-novella, Litrichean Plàighe (‘Plague Letters’) is currently in preparation. In 2019 he was appointed Bàrd Baile Ghlaschu, the City of Glasgow’s first Gaelic Poet Laureate, and in 2023 was award the Bardic Crown at the National Mod. He lives on the west coast of Scotland with his wife and their two children.