Eggplant.place

21d

to hear the Gaelic ann an taigh-mòr
air a’ chrìch eadar dà shiorrachd
ann an Èirinn far am faighear taic
o gach comhairle gus na dìogan a ghlanadh,
na claisean a chàradh…

—Pàdraig MacAoidh, “Geographical Exclusions Apply”
published in With Their Best Clothes On: New Writing Scotland 36 (ASL, 2018)

#Scottish #literature #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #poem #poetry

Pàdraig MacAoidh
GEOGRAPHICAL EXCLUSIONS APPLY

to hear the Gaelic ann an taigh-mòr
air a’ chrìch eadar dà shiorrachd
ann an Èirinn far am faighear taic
o gach comhairle gus na dìogan a ghlanadh,
na claisean a chàradh, ged nach robh e
idir gu leòr agus fios gun teagamh sam bith
gun robh an taigh a’ grodadh, nach bi
e fada son t-saoghail seo, leis gun robh e –
mar gach taigh-mòr eile – a’ tuiteam
às a chèile on mhullach, gun robh
na sglèatan a’ crochadh air adhar,
na cabair phreasach nas làine de thuill
na de dh’fhiodh ’s it was lovely to hear
the Gaelic aig solas dearg ann an Gleann
Iucha far an do stad car agus shlaighd
fear sios an uinneag agus leig e às –
gu slaodach – cnap cotain a bha stobte
sa bheul ann am beàrn far am b’ àbhaist
fiacail a bhith, an cotan air tionndadh
dearg gorm dubh agus air maistrich
le na duilleagan ’s an traillich ’s an uisge
ronnach ruadh a’ ruith sìos a’ chlais
sìos dhan it was lovely to hear the Gaelic
anns a’ chlò a’ chlò a’ chlò às am bi
fàileadh m’ eilein-sa ag èirigh gach trup
a bhios tu fàs teth agus fliuch aig an aon àm
mar gum b’ e comharra feise a bh’ ann
rud cho borb bèisteil ’s nach urrainn dhut
a chumail ri taobh do chraicinn, nad
achlaisean, eadar do shlèistean, gun iad a bhith
air an suathadh, air an sgròbadh a bhith dearg
’s dubh ’s geal ’s tu ag ràdh eadar fiaclan dùinte

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21d

Alistair Braidwood speaks with Louise Welsh about her latest Rilke novel, THE CUT UP. The pair discuss the book’s central character & wider cast, the world of antiques against which the novel is set, writing violence, the importance of detail, moral ambiguity, representing the senses, the joys of writing about Glasgow, & more

@bookstodon

https://www.scotswhayhae.com/post/rilke-s-return-the-scots-whay-hae-podcast-talks-to-louise-welsh

#Scottish #literature #CrimeFiction #Glasgow #podcast

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19d

Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift…

—Carol Ann Duffy, “Prayer”
from MEAN TIME (Picador, 2017; Anvil, 1993)

https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/carol-ann-duffy/mean-time/9781509852949

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #CarolAnnDuffy #womenwriters #prayer

Prayer
Carol Ann Duffy

Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.

Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.

Pray for us now. Grade 1 piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child’s name as though they named their loss.

Darkness outside. Inside, the radio’s prayer –
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.

ALT

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337d

“its power as a starter in crowd psychology comes from Mackay’s insistence on humanising the follies he describes. No macroeconomic constructs here – just good old greed, optimism, superstition & cunning plans”

—Charles Mackay (1814–1889) was born #OTD, 27 March – best remembered today for his 1841 book Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds

1/3

https://www.peterharrington.co.uk/blog/the-great-and-awful-book-of-human-folly-charles-mackays-popular-delusions-2/

#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #Victorian #psychology #masspsychology #economics #stockmarket #bubbles

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19d

Robert Louis Stevenson’s short story “The Bottle Imp” was first published (in English) on this day, 8 Feb, 1891, in the New York Herald. It was originally published in Samoan translation as “‘O le Fagu Aitu” in the missionary magazine O le sulu Samoa (The Samoan Torch)

A 👿 🧵

1/10

#Scottish #literature #shortstory #RobertLouisStevenson #19thcentury #Victorian #Pacific #Samoa #Hawaii #supernatural

A newspaper clipping from 1891, showing a title and the opening few lines of Robert Louis Stevenson’s short story "The Bottle Imp"

ALT

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19d

Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded #OnThisDay, 8 February, 1587, on the orders of Elizabeth I of England – her first cousin once removed.

Consider the way she had to go,
Think of the hungry snare,
The net she herself had woven,
Aware or unaware…

—Marion Angus, “Alas! Poor Queen”
Published in TURN OF THE DAY (1931) – online via the National Library of Scotland

https://digital.nls.uk/works-by-selected-scottish-authors/archive/129159433?mode=fullsize

#Scottish #literature #history #poem #poetry #MaryQueenofScots #womenwriters #20thcentury

Alas! Poor Queen
Marion Angus

She was skilled in music and the dance
And the old arts of love
At the court of the poisoned rose
And the perfumed glove,
And gave her beautiful hand
To the pale Dauphin
A triple crown to win—
And she loved little dogs
And parrots
And red-legged partridges
And the golden fishes of the Due de Guise
And a pigeon with a blue ruff
She had from Monsieur d’Elboeuf.

Master John Knox was no friend to her ;
She spoke him soft and kind,
Her honeyed words were Satan’s lure
The unwary soul to bind.
“Good sir, doth a lissome shape
And a comely face
Offend your God His Grace
Whose Wisdom maketh these
Golden fishes of the Due de Guise?”

She rode through Liddesdale with a song ;
“Ye streams sae wondrous strang,
Oh, mak’ me a wrack as I come back
But spare me as I gang.”
While a hill-bird cried and cried
Like a spirit lost
By the grey storm-wind tost.

Consider the way she had to go,
Think of the hungry snare,
The net she herself had woven,
Aware or unaware,

ALT

Of the dancing feet grown still,
The blinded eyes.—
Queens should be cold and wise,
And she loved little things,
Parrots
And red-legged partridges
And the golden fishes of the Due de Guise
And the pigeon with the blue ruff
She had from Monsieur d’Elboeuf.

ALT

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20d

You might forget the exact sound of her voice
or how her face looked when sleeping.
You might forget the sound of her quiet weeping
curled into the shape of a half moon…

—Jackie Kay, “Darling”
published in DARLING (Bloodaxe, 2007)

https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/product/darling-877

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #JackieKay #grief #death

Darling
by Jackie Kay

You might forget the exact sound of her voice
or how her face looked when sleeping.
You might forget the sound of her quiet weeping
curled into the shape of a half moon,

when smaller than her self, she seemed already to be leaving
before she left, when the blossom was on the trees
and the sun was out, and all seemed good in the world.
I held her hand and sang a song from when I was a girl –

Heel y’ho boys, let her go boys –
and when I stopped singing she had slipped away,
already a slip of a girl again, skipping off,
her heart light, her face almost smiling.

And what I didn’t know or couldn’t say then
was that she hadn’t really gone.
The dead don’t go till you do, loved ones.
The dead are still here holding our hands.

ALT

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333d

Andrew Lang (1844–1912) was born #OTD, 31 March. An extraordinarily prolific anthropologist, writer & literary critic, he is best remembered today for collecting & editing fairy stories from around the world

A 🎂 🧵

1/6

https://universityofglasgowlibrary.wordpress.com/2016/05/20/the-man-of-letters-in-fairyland-andrew-lang/

#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #Victorian #kidlit #fairytale #AndrewLang

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259d

James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) was born #OTD, 13 June. As a physicist, he ranks alongside Newton & Einstein (“He achieved greatness unequalled”—Max Planck; “I stand on the shoulders of Maxwell”—Albert Einstein).

Maxwell also wrote poetry: “Rigid Body Sings” is based on “Comin’ Through the Rye” by Robert Burns

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45774/in-memory-of-edward-wilson-who-repented-of-what-was-in-his-mind-to-write-after-section

#Scottish #literature #poetry #19thcentury #Victorian #Scots #Scotslanguage #Physics #science #physicist

In Memory of Edward Wilson, Who Repented of what was in his Mind to Write after Section
BY JAMES CLERK MAXWELL

Rigid Body (sings).

Gin a body meet a body
Flyin’ through the air,
Gin a body hit a body,
Will it fly? and where?
Ilka impact has its measure,
Ne’er a ane hae I,
Yet a’ the lads they measure me,
Or, at least, they try.

Gin a body meet a body
Altogether free,
How they travel afterwards
We do not always see.
Ilka problem has its method
By analytics high;
For me, I ken na ane o’ them,
But what the waur am I?

ALT

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17d

Call for Papers
Scotland Along the New Silk Road
IASSL 5th World Congress of Scottish Literatures
17–20 June 2027, Nanjing

This congress seeks to foster reciprocal understanding & cultural collaborations between Scotland & the diverse voices of the New Silk Road

Deadline for proposals: 30 Nov 2026

@litstudies

https://scotlit-iassl.org/2025/11/11/call-for-papers-5th-world-congress-of-scottish-literatures-scotland-along-the-new-silk-road-17-20-june-2027/

#Scottish #literature #Scotland #China #culture #postcolonial #worldliterature #callforpapers

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18d

Nan MacKinnon, ‘Nan Eachainn Fhionnlaigh’ (1902–1982): her contribution to the School of Scottish Studies & her legacy
13 Feb, free online

Born in Barra & living later in Vatersay, Nan MacKinnon worked with several School of Scottish Studies fieldworkers to record for its archives a wealth of inherited Gaelic oral tradition – songs, tales, legends – as well as personal experience & observation.

https://llc.ed.ac.uk/celtic-scottish-studies/css-seminar-series-260213

#Scottish #literature #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #tradition #folklore #legends

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18d

Let us remember
the stillborn: how they

cede their places here
with such good grace

that no one ever
speaks of them

again…

—John Burnside, “A Footnote to Colossians”
published in RUIN, BLOSSOM (Penguin, 2024)

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/456120/ruin-blossom-by-burnside-john/9781529909258

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #JohnBurnside

John Burnside
A Footnote to Colossians

For ye are dead, and your life is hid
Colossians 3:3

Let us remember
the stillborn: how they

cede their places here
with such good grace

that no one ever
speaks of them

again.
In school,

we placed them, carefully,
in Limbo,

deep in the folds of smoke
and snowfall, where

their names would never
find them:

pagan, now,
and immaterial,

like phantoms,
or that

boy I sometimes saw
in polaroids,

the one they said
was me.

ALT

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17d

A Kick Up the Arts

Gray Day on 25 February celebrates the 45th anniversary of Lanark. Curated by Sorcha Dallas, custodian of the Alasdair Gray Archive, the event will be hosted by writer & comedian Josie Long & will feature a new short story by Rachelle Atalla inspired by Gray’s work.

A Kick Up the Arts host Nicola Meighan visits the archive & speaks to Sorcha, Josie & Rachelle about the upcoming celebration

https://www.akickupthearts.org/blog-3-1/josie-long-rachelle-atalla-amp-sorcha-dallas-on-alasdair-gray

#Scottish #literature #AlasdairGray #GrayDay #podcast

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18d

The swine hangs on,
The swine hangs on to power,
The townsfolk mutter round the tower…

—Alan Jackson, “The Swine”
published in Salutations: Collected Poems 1960–1989 (Polygon, 1990)

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/swine/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #20thcentury

The Swine
Alan Jackson

The swine hangs on,
The swine hangs on to power,
The townsfolk mutter round the tower:

“Roast him, toast him,
Thin his blood.
Try fire first,
Then try flood.

Char the timbers,
Crack the stone.
Make him marrow
In a splintered bone.

Then he’ll tumble,
Our hot meat.
Then we hack him.
Then we eat.”

ALT

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18d

The Carrying Stream – 4

Scottish Folk & European Music with Kirsteen McCue, Professor of Scottish Literature & Song Culture at the University of Glasgow

Discussing the history of Scottish folk music & particularly its influence on the birth of modern music – from Beethoven to Bob Dylan

https://pod.link/1865430519/episode/ZThjODAzZjEtODQ1ZS00OWY2LWI5NzItZjI0NjBhNWU2NTBm

#Scottish #music #folkmusic #folksong #podcast

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17d

Saltire Sessions: Gerda Stevenson

The Saltire Society talks to Gerda Stevenson – actress, writer, director & musician – about storytelling in its different forms, Scots language, loss & Gerda’s new short story collection CAT WUMMIN, published by Luath Press.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l93GKY8DeaM

#Scottish #literature #Scots #Scotslanguage #womanwriters

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17d

I nod and nod to my own shadow and thrust
A mountain down and down.
Between my feet a loch shines in the brown,
Its silver paper crinkled and edged with rust…

—Norman MacCaig, “Climbing Suilven”
from BETWEEN MOUNTAIN AND SEA: Poems From Assynt (Birlinn, 2018)

https://birlinn.co.uk/product/between-mountain-and-sea/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #climbing #hillwalking #Suilven #Sutherland #20thcentury #NormanMacCaig

Norman MacCaig
Climbing Suilven

I nod and nod to my own shadow and thrust
A mountain down and down.
Between my feet a loch shines in the brown,
Its silver paper crinkled and edged with rust.
My lungs say No;
But down and down this treadmill hill must go.

Parishes dwindle. But my parish is
This stone, that tuft, this stone
And the cramped quarters of my flesh and bone.
I claw that tall horizon down to this;
And suddenly
My shadow jumps huge miles away from me.

ALT

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322d

I couldn’t touch a stop and turn a screw,
And set the blooming world a-work for me,
Like such as cut their teeth—I hope, like you—
On the handle of a skeleton gold key…

—“Thirty Bob a Week”, by the 19th-century poet, playwright & novelist John Davidson (1857–1909) – born #OTD, 11 April. A 🎂 🧵

1/3

Page images from THE YELLOW BOOK vol. 2, 1894 – available on @gutenberg_org

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/41876/41876-h/41876-h.htm#Page_99

#Scottish #literature #poetry #19thCentury #Victorian #Modernist #Modernism #workingclass

John Davidson
Thirty Bob a Week

I couldn’t touch a stop and turn a screw,
And set the blooming world a-work for me,
Like such as cut their teeth—I hope, like you—
On the handle of a skeleton gold key.
I cut mine on a leek, which I eat it every week:
I’m a clerk at thirty bob as you can see.

But I don’t allow it’s luck and all a toss;
There’s no such thing as being starred and crossed;
It’s just the power of some to be a boss,
And the bally power of others to be bossed:
I face the music, sir; you bet I ain’t a cur!
Strike me lucky if I don’t believe I’m lost!

For like a mole I journey in the dark,
A-travelling along the underground
From my Pillar’d Halls and broad suburban Park
To come the daily dull official round;
And home again at night with my pipe all alight
A-scheming how to count ten bob a pound.

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16d

Nan Shepherd (1893–1981) was born #OTD, 11 Feb. Recently her nature writing & her memoir THE LIVING MOUNTAIN have gained attention—but she was also an important modernist novelist. Charlotte Peacock weighs her contribution to Scotland’s literary renaissance

A 🎂 🧵

1/9

https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2020/12/quiet-pioneer-the-novels-of-nan-shepherd-1893-1981/

#Scottish #literature #NanShepherd #modernist #modernism #20thCentury #NatureWriting #memoir #WomenWriters

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15d

Gave yet another lecture. God, I’m boring.
Said all the same old things I’ve said before
With touches of “however-ing” and “therefore-ing”.
Dear God, it’s true, I’m just an ancient bore…

—Douglas Dunn, “Thursday”
published in THE NOISE OF A FLY (Faber, 2019)

https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571333820-the-noise-of-a-fly/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #academia

Thursday
Douglas Dunn

Gave yet another lecture. God, I’m boring.
Said all the same old things I’ve said before
With touches of “however-ing” and “therefore-ing”.
Dear God, it’s true, I’m just an ancient bore.

If only I could tap my old exuberance,
High spirits that I plied in days before,
Then maybe I would find a kind deliverance
From the curse of being such a bloody bore.

For I’m the model of a modern academic.
I’m absolutely super at ennui.
I’m just stunning when it comes to a polemic,
And boredom’s snoredom’s what I guarantee.

I’m putting extra pennies in my pension.
Retirement beckons and the garden calls,
That beautiful, botanical dimension
Where boiler-suited pensioners scratch their balls.

But I’ve a problem. It’s called “work ethic”, so
I’ll slog on with the daily, dreary toil.
Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, what a lousy way to go,
To work all day then burn the midnight oil.

ALT

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16d

Thanks to funding from the Scottish government, ASL is offering free class sets of Donald S. Murray’s play SEQUAMUR – one of the set texts for Higher English – to secondary schools in Scotland. See our website for details:

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/free-publications/sequamur/

#Scottish #literature #drama #Higher #HigherEnglish #school #secondaryschool

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15d

I met a young man in a floppy hat
who stopped and smiled; he too had charm.
“My finches,” he said, “you are watching my finches.”

—Edwin Morgan, “Darwin in the Galapagos (1835 AD)”
published in A BOOK OF LIVES (Carcanet, 2007)

Charles Darwin was born #OnThisDay, 12 February, 1809

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781857549188/a-book-of-lives/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #EdwinMorgan #Darwin #CharlesDarwin #DarwinDay #evolution

Edwin Morgan
Darwin in the Galapagos (1835 AD)

It was a cool day for the equator
as I clambered whistling over the clinker.
Clouds had brought a shower across the shore.
Grey black scoured and pitted rocks
glistened, and so did an iguana
eyeing me lazily with its wet crest bristling.
I saw the drag-marks of a giant tortoise –
what a dogged message thrusting into the thicket!
And the air was bright with birds, well, bright and dark –
green, brown, yellow – little birds, finches
flirting their few inches, drenching the freshness
with a spray of chatter and chirm, with a charm
peculiar to these islands, these Incantadas

I met a young man in a floppy hat
who stopped and smiled; he too had charm.
“My finches,” he said, “you are watching my finches.”
We sat on an old stump, I cherish the moment.
A man both ingenuous and ingenious,
a genius indeed, enthusiastic, shy,
well no, not really shy, but modest,
that was a type I could talk to for ever.

ALT

“These finches – all different,” he said.
“They have become separate species, and why is that?
They had some ancestor in Ecuador
but here their beaks have changed to match their food –
small seeds, big seeds, nectar, and do you know
there is one that makes a tool of cactus spines
to ferret grubs from tree-cracks? Oh
I can hardly sleep for excitement!
Nothing is immutable, life changes, we evolve.
Process is gorgeous, is it not!
Process is progress, don‘t you see!”

He taps my arm, his eyes shine. I agree.
Time breaks in great waves as we speak.
And look, a finch on the back of a tortoise
as if it had been listening
lifts its beak and begins a singing
so piercing it gives no end to that beginning.

ALT

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15d

The longlist for the 2025 Duais Leabhair na Gàidhealtachd | Highland Book Prize has been announced. The Prize celebrates the talent, landscape, & cultural diversity of the Scottish Highlands & is open to works of fiction, non-fiction, & poetry

https://www.highlandbookprize.org.uk/longlist/

#Scottish #literature #Highlands #HighlandBookPrize #Gaidhlig #Gaelic