On October 26th 1911 the Gaelic poet, Sorley MacLean, was born on the island of Raasay.
He was brought up within a family and community immersed in Gaelic language and culture, particularly song. Sorley studied English at Edinburgh University from 1929, taking a first class honours degree and there encountering and finding an affinity with the work of Hugh MacDiarmid, Ezra Pound, and other Modernist poets. Despite this influence, he eventually adopted Gaelic as the medium most appropriate for his poetry. However, it should be noted that MacLean translated much of his own work into English, opening it up to a wider public than the speakers of the Gaelic language.
During the Spanish Civil War, MacLean was torn between family commitments and his desire to fight on behalf of the International Brigades, illustrating his left-wing - even Marxist - political stance. He eventually resigned himself to remaining on Skye. He fought in North Africa during World War Two, before taking up a career in teaching, holding posts on Mull, in Edinburgh and finally as Head Teacher at Plockton High School.
It is often said that what Hugh MacDiarmid did for the Scots language, Sorley MacLean did for Gaelic, sparking a Gaelic renaissance in Scottish literature in line with the earlier ‘Scottish Renaissance’, as evinced in the work of George Campbell Hay, Derick Thomson and Iain Crichton Smith. He 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.
MacLean’s work was virtually unknown outside Gaelic-speaking circles until the 1970s, when Gordon Wright published Four Points of a Saltire - poems from George Campbell Hay, Stuart MacGregor, William Neill and Sorley MacLean. He also then appeared at the Cambridge Poetry Festival, establishing his fame in England, as well as Scotland and Ireland, where he had become something of a cult figure thanks to a fan base including fellow poet Seamus Heaney. A bilingual Selected Poems of 1977 secured a broader readership and a new generation began to appreciate his work.
Latterly, he wrote and published little, showing his concern with quality and authenticity over quantity. Never a full-time writer, he was also a scholar of the Highlands with a vast knowledge of genealogy, and an avid follower of shinty. Amongst other awards and honours, he received the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1990. He passed on in 1996 at the age of 85, and was survived by his wife and two daughters.
I have posted many times about Sorley, and probably overused Martyn Bennet’s Hallaig, but if you haven’t heard it, please go to Youtube and search for it, you won’t regret it.
Todays poem is Tràighean/ Shores, the Gaelic version first, followed by the verse translated by his fellow bi-lingual poet, Iain Crichton Smith.
Nan robh sinn an Talasgar air an tràigh
far a bheil am beul mòr bàn
a’ fosgladh eadar dà ghiall chruaidh,
Rubha nan Clach `s am Bioda Ruadh,
sheasainn-sa ri taobhn na mara
ag ùrachadh gaoil ‘nam anam
fhad ‘s a bhiodh an cuan a’lìonadh
camas Thalasgair gu sìorraidh:
sheasainn an siud air lom na tràghad
gu `n cromadh Priseal a cheann àigich.
Agus nan robh sinn ciudeachd
air tràigh Chalgaraidh am Muile,
eadar Alba is Tiriodh,
eadar an saoghal `s a’bhiothbhuan,
dh’fhuirichinn an siud gu luan
a’ tomhas gainmhich bruan air bhruan.
Agus an Uibhist air tràigh Hòmhstadh
fa chomhair farsaingeachd na h-ònrachd,
dh’fheithinn-sa an siud gu sìorraidh
braon air bhraon an cuan a’ sìoladh.
Agus nan robh mi air tràigh Mhùideart
còmhla riut, a nodhachd ùidhe,
chuirinn suas an co-chur gaoil dhut
an cuan ’s a’ ghaineamh, bruan air bhraon dhiubh.
’S nan robh sinn air Mol Steinnseil Stamhain
’s an fhairge neo-aoibhneach a’ tarraing
nan ulbhag is gan tilgeil tharainn,
thogainn-sa am balla daingeann
ro shìorraidheachd choimhich ’s i framhach.
If we were in Talisker on the shore
where the great white foaming mouth of water
opens between two jaws as hard as flint –
the Headland of Stones and the Red Point –
I’d stand forever by the waves
renewing love out of their crumpling graves
as long as the sea would be going over
the Bay of Talisker for ever;
I would stand thee by the filling tide
till Preshal bowed his stallion head.
And if the two of us were together
on the shores of Calgary in Mull
between Scotland and Tiree,
between this world and eternity,
I’d stand there till time was done
counting the sands grain by grain.
And also on Uist, on Hosta’s shore,
in the face of solitude’s fierce stare,
I’d remain standing, without sleep,
while sea were ebbing, drop by drop.
And if I were on Moidart’s shore
With you, my novelty of desire,
I’d offer this synthesis of love,
grain and water, sand and wave.
And were we by the shelves of Staffin
where the huge joyless sea is coughing
stones and boulders from its throat,
I’d build a fortified wall
Against eternity’s savage howl.
The photo of the cairn is a Memorial Cairn at Hallaig dedicated to Shomhairle Macgill-eain,, the cairn also commemorated the people of Hallaig and other cleared crofting townships.
As well as Hallaig I enjoy listening to Somhairle by Niteworks, an Electronic Celtic fusion band from the Isle of Skye who put some of Sorley’s words to music. Listen to it below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PgWqrxa_-Y
