scottish

50d

In the latest episode of Talking Tudors, Natalie Grueninger speaks with Dr Ashley Douglas about her new book, With My Own Hand: The Secret Life of Marie Maitland, Scotland's Sixteenth-Century Sappho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgC3ivcGoOw

#Scottish #literature #poetry #16thcentury #EarlyModern #LGBTQ #LGBTQhistory #QueerHistory

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50d

Marjolein Robertson: Shetland Folklore
24–25 & 28–30 August, Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh. Tickets £16

Join Marjolein Robertson for an hour of immersive tales – beautiful, sad, funny & magical – from Scotland’s most northerly isles.

https://scottishstorytellingcentre.online.red61.co.uk/event/913:6705/

#Scottish #literature #folklore #folktale #Scotland #Shetland

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49d

The Battle of Harlaw was fought #OTD, 24 July, 1411. Before the battle the Clan Donald bard Lachlann Mòr MacMhuirich composed this brosnachadh or incitement to battle. Each line contains 2 describing words, & each successive pair of lines all begin with the same letter while retaining the 7-syllable format of each line. The poet works through the entire Gaelic alphabet in sequence.

1/2

https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/inverurie/battleofharlaw/index.html

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #medieval #history #battle

Brostughadh-catha Chlann-Domhnaill, Là Chatha Gharbhaich
Lachlann Mòr MacMhuirich

A Chlanna Cuinn, cuimhnichibh
Cruas an am na h-iorghaile:
Gu h-àirneach, gu h-arranta,
Gu h-athlamh, gu h-allanta,
Gu beòdha, gu barramhail,
Gu brìoghmhor, gu buan-fheargach,
Gu calma, gu curanta,
Gu cròdha, gu cath-bhuadhach,
Gu dùr is gu dàsannach,
Gu dian is gu deagh-fhulang,
Gu h-èasgaidh, gu h-eaghnamhach,
Gu h-éidith’, gu h-eireachdail,
Gu fortail, gu furachail,
Gu frithir, gu forniata,
Gu gruamach, gu gràineamhail,
Gu gleusta, gu gaisgeamhail,
Gu h-ullamh, gu h-iorghaileach,
Gu h-olla-bhorb, gu h-àibheiseach,
Gu h-innill, gu h-inntinneach,
Gu h-iomdha, gu h-iomghonach,
Gu laomsgar, gu làn-athlamh,
Gu làidir, gu luath-bhuilleach,
Gu mearghanta, gu mór-chneadhach,
Gu meanmnach, gu mìleanta,
Gu neimhneach, gu naimhdeamhail,
Gu niatach, gu neimh-eaglach,
Gu h-obann, gu h-olla-ghnìomhach,
Gu h-oirdheirc, gu h-oirbheartach,
Gu prap is gu prìomh-ullamh,
Gu prosta, gu prionnsamhail,
Gu ruaimneach, gu ro-dhàna,

Gu ro-bhorb, gu rìoghamhail,
Gu sanntach, gu sèanamhail,
Gun socair, gu sàr-bhuailteach,
Gu teannta, gu togarrach,
Gu talcmhor, gu traigh-èasgaidh,
Gu h-urlamh, gu h-ùr-mhaiseach,
Do chosnadh na cath-làthrach
Re bronnaibh bhar biodhbhadha.
A Chlanna Cuinn Cèad-chathaich
A nois uair bhar n-aitheanta,
A chuileanan confadhach,
A leómhannan làn-ghasta,
A onchonaibh iorghaileach,
Chaoiribh chròdha, churanta
De Chlanna Cuinn Cèad-chathaich –
A Chlanna Cuinn, cuimhnichibh
Cruas an am na h-iorghaile.

The Harlaw Brosnachadh
Lachlann Mòr MacMhuirich
Translated by Meg Bateman

Children of Conn, recall now
courage in time of combat:
be attentive, audacious,
agile, ambitious,
be bold, beautiful,
brawny, belligerent,
contumacious, courageous,
clever, combative,
deliberate, destructive,
deadly, enduring,
be eager, expert,
well-equipped, elegant,
be forceful, fitful,
fervent, feisty,
be grim, gruesome,
gymnastic, glorious,
alert, awesome,
intractable, impetuous,
well-accoutred, ardent,
innumerable, incisive,
be lethal, lusty,
swiftly lopping, giving it laldy,
mirthful, mortally-wounding,
mettlesome, military,
be noxious, nasty,
never-daunted, never-fearing,
overwhelming, omnipotent,
outshining, outreaching,
precipitate, prepared,
powerful, princely,
be robust, reckless,
ruinous, regal,

be sharp, sainèd,
steady, sure-hitting,
tight, triumphant,
tenacious, tripping,
youthful and yearning
to beat in battle
the foe's forces.

O Children of Conn of a hundred conflicts,
now is the hour for honour,
O warring whelps,
O bulky bears,
O leading lions,
O obstinate otters,
live, courageous coals
of the Children of Conn of a hundred conflicts –
O Children of Conn, recall now
courage in time of combat.

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20d

Like tweed like pearls
like fire like wood
like loss like Listen with Mother with me…

—Andrew Sclater, “The Scotswoman Who Married Into the Home Counties”
from SONGS OF OTHER PLACES: New Writing Scotland 32 (ASL, 2014)

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry

Andrew Sclater
The Scotswoman Who Married Into the Home Counties

Like tweed like pearls
like fire like wood
like loss like Listen with Mother with me

Like prayer like water
like a Scots laird’s daughter
like your three darling war-dead before me

Like heather that shrivels in Hampshire
like silver birch going sick on the chalk
like your loch all clogged up beyond the border

Like grin and bear it
like you limp to the shop
like bravery how I wanted to shake you

Like you meant the marriage
like you could not
stop him being like he was

in his unlikeness
like a moor set down in a wheat farm
like your composure stiffening

Like your bad hip
like the smell of you ageing
like you knowing of the coming

of your death all the time he poured beer
that last evening in Broughton
like you never were like yourself down here.

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63d

On the oneness of self and universe

IT’S AW WAN
TAE ME

—Alan Spence, GLASGOW ZEN
published by @canongatebooks 2012

https://canongate.co.uk/books/333-glasgow-zen/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Glasgow #Scots #Scotslanguage #Zen

Alan Spence
GLASGOW ZEN

On the oneness of self and universe

IT'S AW WAN
TAE ME

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49d

miscarriage

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49d

Wigtown Book Festival
25 September–4 October 2026

Tickets for the 2026 Wigtown Book Festival – a 10-day literary celebration in Scotland’s National Book Town – are now on sale.

https://www.wigtownbookfestival.com

#Scottish #literature #books #bookfestival #Wigtown #WigtownBookFestival

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31d

I’ll ha’e nae hauf-way hoose, but aye be whaur
Extremes meet – it’s the only way I ken
To dodge the curst conceit o’ bein’ richt
That damns the vast majority o’ men.

—from “A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle”

A 🎂🧵 for Hugh MacDiarmid—born #OTD, 11 Aug 1892

1/10

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/hugh-macdiarmid

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid

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30d

Scotland 1926
25 Aug, Edinburgh Book Festival

Kirsty Gunn, Alan Riach, and James Robertson revisit the Scottish Renaissance through landmark works including Hugh MacDiarmid’s A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle, the early work of Neil M Gunn, & other under-sung voices including Willa Muir & Helen Cruickshank. Deep dive into a remarkable literary moment and the writers who helped reshape Scotland’s imaginative life.

https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/events/kirsty-gunn-alan-riach-and-james-robertson-scotland-1926

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #Scots #Scotslanguage

Fiction (Adults)
Kirsty Gunn, Alan Riach, and James
Robertson: Scotland 1926
Tue 25 Aug 2026 | 12:15 - 13:15
• Courtyard Theatre
Accessibility
Captioned

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48d

“In 1990, the UK CWA issued a list titled ‘The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time.’ Number one on the list was THE DAUGHTER OF TIME by Josephine Tey. It was a good call then, it’d still be a good call now.”

Josephine Tey (1896–1952) was born #OTD, 25 July – a 🎂 🧵

@bookstodon

1/7

https://crimereads.com/josephine-tey-a-crime-readers-guide-to-the-classics/

#Scottish #literature #crimefiction #womenwriters #20thcentury #JosephineTey

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48d

RE: https://mastodon.scot/@scotlit/116980516916106856

Josephine Tey’s Golden Age

Available on YouTube: the fourth episode of Queens of Crime at War, a six-part Shedunnit series looking at what the best writers from the golden age of detective fiction did once that period came to an end with the start of the Second World War. Caroline Crampton discusses Josephine Tey with Tey’s biographer Jennifer Morag Henderson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwLqXm4SH6Q

#Scottish #literature #crimefiction #womenwriters #20thcentury #JosephineTey #WW2

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48d

Yee-haw! Today – 25 July – is Cowboy Day! 🤠

“Prosaic & glib cartoon art is consigned along with yesterday’s newspaper, to the bin & oblivion; the few great strips lodge themselves in the public’s psyche”

—downthetubes.net celebrates Lobey Dosser, Glasgow’s greatest cowboy (& his 2-legged horse El Fildeldo)

https://downthetubes.net/lobey-dosser-a-very-surreal-glaswegian/

#Scottish #literature #Glasgow #comic #comics #comicstrip #cowboy #CowboyDay #NationalCowboyDay

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47d

‘Part Fable, Part Porridge’: Jackie Kay & Dame Hermione Lee on Writing the Self

For many theorists of autobiography, the form assumes a self that can be known & a life that can be accounted for. But how do you write an autobiography when your origin & identity are unknown, uncertain, or multiple?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBRPfyW2Vjk

#Scottish #literature #writing #autobiography #lifewriting #identity #ScottishIdentity #adoption

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29d

“I usually try to write in Gaelic, unless a poem needs a particular turn of phrase in English… I will often work back and forth between both languages, because for me the translation provides a new lens to see the poem with.”

—Beth Frieden speaks to 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘺 magazine about her debut poetry pamphlet, 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘴𝘢𝘯 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘩

https://www.theskinny.co.uk/books/features/beth-frieden-gaelic-poetry

#Scottish #literature #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #poetry #translation

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29d

Thar na sìorraidheachd, thar a sneachda,
chì mi mo dhàin neo-dheachdte,
chì mi lorgan an spòg a’ breacadh
gile shuaimhneach an t-sneachda:
calg air bhoile, teanga fala,
gadhair chaola ’s madaidhean-allaidh…

—Somhairle MacGill-Eain, “Coin is Madaidhean-allaidh” (“Dogs and Wolves”)

A poem for International Wolf Day 🐺

#Scottish #literature #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #poem #poetry #wolf #wolves #InternationalWolfDay

Coin is Madaidhean-allaidh
Somhairle MacGill-Eain

Thar na sìorraidheachd, thar a sneachda,
chì mi mo dhàin neo-dheachdte,
chì mi lorgan an spòg a’ breacadh
gile shuaimhneach an t-sneachda:
calg air bhoile, teanga fala,
gadhair chaola ’s madaidhean-allaidh
a’ leum thar mullaichean nan gàrradh,
a’ ruith fo sgàil nan craobhan fàsail,
a’ gabhail cumhang nan caol-ghleann,
a’ sireadh caisead nan gaoth-bheann;
an langan gallanach a’ sianail
thar loman cruaidhe nan àm cianail,
an comhartaich bhiothbhuan ’na mo chluasan,
an deann-ruith a’ gabhail mo bhuadhan:
rèis nam madadh ’s nan con iargalt
luath air tòrachd an fhiadhaich
tro na coilltean gun fhiaradh,
thar mullaichean nam beann gun shiaradh;
coin chiùine caothaich na bàrdachd,
madaidhean air tòir na h-àilleachd,
àilleachd an anama ’s an aodainn,
fiadh geal thar bheann is raointean,
fiadh do bhòidhche ciùine gaolaich,
fiadhach gun sgur gun fhaochadh.

Dogs and Wolves
Sorley MacLean

Across eternity, across its snows,
I see my unwritten poems,
I see the spoor of their paws dappling
the untroubled whiteness of the snow:
bristles raging, bloody-tongued,
lean greyhounds and wolves
leaping over the tops of the dykes,
running under the shade of the trees of the wilderness,
taking the defile of narrow glens,
making for the steepness of windy mountains;
their baying yell shrieking
across the hard barenesses of the terrible times,
their everlasting barking in my ears,
their onrush seizing my mind:
career of wolves and eerie dogs
swift in pursuit of the quarry,
through the forests without veering,
over the mountain-tops without sheering;
the mild mad dogs of poetry,
wolves in chase of beauty,
beauty of soul and face,
a white deer over hills and plains,
the deer of your gentle beloved beauty,
a hunt without halt, without respite.

Edited 29d ago

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47d

That must have been a time of happiness.
The air was mild, the Campsie Fells had vines.
Dirigible parties left soft sky-signs
and bursts of fading music. Who could guess
what they might not accomplish…

—Edwin Morgan, “A Golden Age”
from “Sonnets from Scotland”, published in COLLECTED POEMS (Carcanet, 1990)

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781857541885/collected-poems/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #EdwinMorgan #sonnet #sciencefiction #scifi #SciFiPoetry

Edwin Morgan
A Golden Age

That must have been a time of happiness.
The air was mild, the Campsie Fells had vines.
Dirigible parties left soft sky-signs
and bursts of fading music. Who could guess
what they might not accomplish, they had seas
in cities, cities in the sea; their domes
and crowded belvederes hung free, their homes
eagle-high or down among whitewashed quays.
And women sauntered often with linked arms
through night streets, or alone, or danced a maze
with friends. Perhaps it did not last. What lasts?
The bougainvillea millenniums
may come and go, but then in thistle days
a strengthened seed outlives the hardest blasts.

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47d

Words of the Wild Book Festival
29 September–3 October, Edinburgh

This autumn, immerse yourself in some of Scotland’s best nature writing at the first Words of the Wild Book Festival. Featuring online talks, panel discussions & creative writing workshops.

Full programme and tickets:

https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/wordsofthewild/book-festival/

#Scottish #literature #writing #naturewriting #creativewriting #books #bookfestival #Edinburgh

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46d

A bird’s voice chinks and tinkles
Alone in the gaunt reedbed –
Tiny silversmith
Working late in the evening…

—Norman MacCaig, “July evening”
published in THE POEMS OF NORMAN MacCAIG (Birlinn, 2009)

https://birlinn.co.uk/product/the-poems-of-norman-maccaig/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #20thcentury #NormanMacCaig #summer #naturepoetry #naturewriting

Norman MacCaig
July evening

A bird’s voice chinks and tinkles
Alone in the gaunt reedbed –
Tiny silversmith
Working late in the evening.

I sit and listen. The rooftop
With a quill of smoke stuck in it
Wavers against the sky
In the dreamy heat of summer.

Flowers’ closing time: bee lurches
Across the hayfield, singing
And feeling its drunken way
Round the air’s invisible corners.

And grass is grace. And charlock
Is gold of its own bounty.
The broken chair by the wall
Is one with immortal landscapes.

Something has been completed
That everything is part of,
Something that will go on
Being completed forever.

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30d

“What an incredible coincidence it is that our moon fits exactly over our sun…”

—In his 2009 parallel-universes novel TRANSITION, Iain (M) Banks suggested that one of our planet’s near-miraculous total eclipses would be a perfect place to look for alien tourists

@bookstodon

https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/iain-banks/transition/9780349139272/

#Scottish #literature #IainMBanks #IainBanks #sciencefiction #scifi #eclipse #eclipse2026 #aliens

"Now, most jet travel on Earth is for tourism. Not business; tourism. Would our smart, curious aliens really be that different from us? I don't think so. Most of them would be tourists. Like us, they'd go on cruise ships. And would they want to actually come to a place like Earth, set foot – or tentacle, or whatever – here? Rather than visit via some sort of virtual reality set-up? Well, some would settle for second-best, yes. Maybe the majority of people would. But the high rollers, the super-wealthy, the elite, they'd want the real thing. They'd want the bragging rights, they'd want to be able to say they'd really been to whatever exotic destinations would be on a Galactic Grand Tour. And who knows what splendours they'd want to fit in; their equivalent of the Grand Canyon, or Venice, Italy, or the Great Wall of China or Yosemite or the Pyramids?

"But what I want to propose to you is that, as well as all those other wonders, they would definitely want to see that one precious thing that we have and probably nobody else does. They'd want to see our eclipse. They'd want to look through the Earth's atmosphere with their own eyes and see the moon fit over the sun, watch the light fade down to almost nothing, listen to the animals nearby fall silent and feel with their own skins the sudden chill in the air that comes with totality. Even if they can't survive in our atmosphere, even if they need a spacesuit to keep them alive, they'd still want to get as close as they possibly could to seeing it in the raw, in as close to natural conditions as it's possible to arrange. They'd want to be here, amongst us, when the shadow passes.

"So that's where you look for aliens. In the course of an eclipse totality track. When everybody else is looking awestruck at the sky, you need to be looking round for anybody who looks weird or overdressed, or who isn't coming out of their RV or their moored yacht with the heavily smoked glass.

""If they're anywhere, they're there, and as distracted – and so as vulnerable – as anybody else staring up in wonder at this astonishing, breathtaking sight.”

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30d

Now westlin winds, and slaught’ring guns
Bring Autumn’s pleasant weather;
And the moorcock springs, on whirring wings,
Amang the blooming heather…

—Robert Burns, “Song, Composed in August”
First published in POEMS, CHIEFLY IN THE SCOTTISH DIALECT (Kilmarnock, 1786)

Pages digitised by the National Library of Scotland

https://digital.nls.uk/poems-chiefly-in-the-scottish-dialect/archive/74464614#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=230&xywh=-1574%2C0%2C5647%2C4185

#Scottish #literature #poetry #song #folksong #RobertBurns #18thcentury #nature #environment

SONG
composed in August

Tune, I had a horse, I had nae mair

Now westlin winds, and slaught'ring guns
Bring Autumn's pleasant weather;

And the moorcock springs on whirring wings
Amang the blooming heather:
Now waving grain, wide o'er the plain,
Delights the weary Farmer;
And the moon shines bright, when I rove at night,
To muse upon my Charmer.

The Partridge loves the fruitful fells,
The Plover loves the mountains;
The Woodcock haunts the lonely dells,
The soaring Hern the fountains:
Thro' lofty groves the Cushat roves,
The path of man to shun it;
The hazel bush o'erhangs the Thrush,
The spreading thorn the Linnet.

Thus ev'ry kind their pleasure find,
The savage and the tender;
Some social join, and leagues combine,
Some solitary wander:

Avaunt, away! the cruel sway!
Tyrannic man's dominion;
The Sportsman's joy, the murd'ring cry,
The flutt'ring, gory pinion!

But PEGGY dear, the ev'ning's clear,
Thick flies the skimming Swallow,
The sky is blue, the fields in view,
All fading-green and yellow:
Come let us stray our gladsome way,
And view the charms of Nature;
The rustling corn, the fruited thorn,
And ilka happy creature.

We'll gently walk, and sweetly talk,
Till the silent moon shine clearly;
I'll grasp thy waist, and fondly prest,
Swear how I love thee dearly:
Not vernal show'rs to budding flow'rs,
Not Autumn to the Farmer,
So dear can be, as thou to me,
My fair, my lovely Charmer!

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46d

🎉PUBLICATION DAY!🥳

NAMING THE SNAKES
New Writing Scotland 44
Edited by Chris Powici, Allan Radcliffe & Anna C. Frater

The best new short fiction & poetry from forty-three writers who are Scottish by birth, residence, or inclination. Available now from all good bookshops (& the evil one too, if you must)!

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/newwriting/nws44/

#Scottish #literature #shortfiction #poetry #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #Scots #Scotslanguage #writingcommunity

Book cover:

Naming
the
Snakes

New
Writing
Scotland
44

Edited by Chris Powici and Allan Radcliffe
Gaelic Editor: Anna C. Frater

The cover image shows a mix of overlapping yellow, orange, and purple fabrics, semi-transparent, on top of a drawing of a hand holding a disc which rests on top of a pillar. The head of a snake coils up from below to rest on the disc.

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46d

David Keenan & Andrew O’Hagan: Boyhood

“A book of great joy, of laughter in the face of horror and delight in storytelling… BOYHOOD is a hymn to the resilience of youth, to the brave dreams of artists and lovers and a love letter to Glasgow – a city where magic happens.”

In this London Review of Books podcast, David Keenan reads from his latest novel BOYHOOD, & talks with Andrew O’Hagan

@bookstodon

https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/podcasts-video/podcasts/david-keenan-and-andrew-o-hagan-boyhood

#Scottish #literature #novel #Glasgow

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46d

Hit wis da swans, dat’s whit it wis.
Dat’s whit set da day apairt.

Twa cygnets, happit in emsket,
a midder, a faider. A peerie geo

aa ta wirsels, whaar waves yockit
sands saftly, maas cried oot abun,

an da sun drappit waarmest hugs
apö wir shooders…

—Maxine Rose Munro, “A fine day”
published in NEW SHETLANDER #295, 2021

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/a-fine-day/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #Shetlandic #Shetland

A fine day
Maxine Rose Munro

Hit wis da swans, dat’s whit it wis.
Dat’s whit set da day apairt.

Twa cygnets, happit in emsket,
a midder, a faider. A peerie geo

aa ta wirsels, whaar waves yockit
sands saftly, maas cried oot abun,

an da sun drappit waarmest hugs
apö wir shooders, glinkin atween

white cloods o oo. Bit da swans,
no buddered be dat, skoited at wis tochtfully,

saw a faider, a midder, twa bairns,
an lat wis in. As wir bairns played

da cygnets circled, curious, comin closs,
closser, skeetin awaa, owre shy efter aa,

ta hoid anunder midder’s wing. Wir bairns
wis much da sam, unsure o da uncan.

Lookin up fae wipin sand fae a peerie
een’s face, I lockit een wi midder swan

an richt den I kent shö wis seein hersel.
An richt den I kent I saw mesel tö.

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29d

Upon his guilded chariot led by hours,
With radiant glories darting throw the air,
The sun, high sprung in his diurnal course,
Shed down a day serenely sweet and fair…

—Allan Ramsay (1684–1758), “The Eclipse”

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #eclipse #astronomy #18thcentury #Scots #Scotslanguage

The Eclipse
Allan Ramsay

Upon his guilded chariot led by hours,
With radiant glories darting throw the air,
The sun, high sprung in his diurnal course,
Shed down a day serenely sweet and fair.
The earth mair beautiful and fertile grew;
The flow’ry fields in rich array,
Smil’d lovely on the beamy day,
Delightful for the eye to view;
Ceres, with her golden hair,
Displaying treasure ilka where,
While useful plenty made her stalks to bow.

A thousand little suns glanc’d on the wave;
Nature appear’d to claim the sun’s respect,
All did sae blyth and beauteously behave.
“Ah!” cry’d the moon, “too much for him ye deck;
“My aking een cannot this glory bear;
“This sun pretends nane in the sky
“Can shine but him, then where am I?
“Soon I the contrary shall clear:
“By ae bauld strake,
“With him I’ll make
“My equal empire in the heaven appear.”

“’Tis me that gives a lustre to the night;
“Then should not I my proper right display,
“And now, even now dart down my silver light?
“I give enough, this sun gives too much day.”
The project fram’d, pale Cynthia now to shaw
Her shining power, right daftly run
Directly ’tween the earth and Sun.
Unwise design! the warld then saw,
Instead of light, the Moon
Brought darkness in at noon,
And without borrowing, had no light at a’.

Thus many empty and imprudent men,
Wha to their ain infirmities are blind,
Rax yont their reach, and this way let us ken
A jealous, weak and insufficient mind.

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46d

We're ready to help get your bills down.
We're ready to break down your door
And gift you a pre-payment meter
To stop you from shivering more…

—Nuala Watt, “Important Information Enclosed”
published in The Department of Work & Pensions Assesses a Jade Fish (Blue Diode, 2024)

https://www.bluediode.co.uk/product-page/the-department-of-work-and-pensions-assesses-a-jade-fish-by-nuala-watt

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #benefits #Disability #DisabilityBenefits #satire

Nuala Watt
Important Information Enclosed

We're ready to help get your bills down.
We're ready to break down your door
And gift you a pre-payment meter
To stop you from shivering more.

Perhaps you did not learn to budget,
But we can assist you with that.
And can we suggest, in the meantime,
You stay in one room in your flat?

We see you've restarted your asthma.
There's not enough gas for a bath.
You cough when you go to the bathroom.
A more parsimonious path

Could help you to quash all these problems.
And follow our energy plan.
We do understand, and we promise
To help you as much as we can.

Perhaps you could turn down your boiler.
Is your jacket too thin? Buy a spare.
The weather created this crisis.
We want you to know that we care.

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