# Transcript

SORLEY MACLEAN
FUARAN
Tha cluaineag ann an iomall sleibh far an ith na feidh ius biolaire; 'na taobh suil uisge rnhor reidh, fuaran leugach cuimir ann.
Air latha thainig mi le m' ghaol gu taobh a' chaochain iomallaich, chrom i h-aodann sios ri bhruaich 'S cha robh a thuar fhein tuilleadh air.
Rainig mi a' chluaineag chein a rithist liom fhein iomadh uair, agus nuair choirnhead mi 'san t-srulaich cha robh ach gnuis te m' ulaidh innt'.
Ach bha na glinn is iad a'falbh is calbh nam beann gun fhuireach rium, cha robh a choltas air na sleibhtean gum facas m'eudail ulaidhe.
SIMON MACKENZIE
A SPRING
At the far edge of a mountain there is a green nook where the deer eat water-cress, in its side a great unruffled eye of water, a shapely jewel-like spring.
One day I came with my love to the side of the remote brook. She bent her head down to its brink and it did not look the same again.
I reached the distant little green many a time again, alone and when I looked into the swirling water there was in it only the face of my treasure-trove.
But the glens were going away and the pillared mountains were not waiting for me: the hills did not look as if my chanced-on treasure had been seen.
IAIN CRICHTON SMITH
This poem of course shows again these assonances very strongly, I think, in this particular poem. I think this one, probably more than any of the others, shows these kind of assonances.
SORLEY MACLEAN
Tha cluaineag ann an iomall sleibh far an ith na feidh lus biolaire; 'na taobh suil uisge mhor reidh, fuaran leugach cuimir ann.
IAIN CRICHTON SMITH
Is this incident, if we can call it a particular incident, is this based again on a real incident, or something that you actually imagined as a poem?
SORLEY MACLEAN
I don't think it is based on a real incident.
IAIN CRICHTON SMITH
Remember that I mentioned about your way of humanising landscape. I notice that in this one for instance you've got
SIMON MACKENZIE
in its side a great unruffled eye of water
IAIN CRICHTON SMITH
Is this something that happens in Gaelic poetry previous to your own?
SORLEY MACLEAN
I think it is a perfectly natural thing, I mean it's a very Gaelic thing, but for instance, if you take the word "ridge" in English, the Gaelic for that is "dhruim", and--
IAIN CRICHTON SMITH
"dhruim" of course meaning, meaning--
SORLEY MACLEAN
"the back".
IAIN CRICHTON SMITH
"the back".
SORLEY MACLEAN
And how you use the word for a neck and for an arm, the forearm, and the upper arm, and the knee, is so very often used, and the shin, for what you might call topographical features. I think it is very Gaelic but I think …
IAIN CRICHTON SMITH
It's not exclusively Gaelic.
SORLEY MACLEAN
It's not exclusively Gaelic, but I think the Gaels are more inclined to it than other languages that I can think of.
IAIN CRICHTON SMITH
I was just wondering, looking at this poem again, when you're writing your poems were, there any particular poets that influenced you either in Gaelic or in English, even though you're writing in Gaelic?
SORLEY MACLEAN
Well, I find it very difficult to say, you see, when I wrote English as well as Gaelic I was affected by people like the early Pound and Eliot, and people like that. It's curious that I had a kind of youthful mania for Shelley, but I don't think he influenced my own verse in the least. Blake I think did, and of course in Gaelic it was more the anonymous song and probably William Ross.
IAIN CRICHTON SMITH
I suppose one of the differences that people would notice, if they could actually read Gaelic in comparison with modern English poetry certainly, is the musical quality of your poetry. Obviously you believe strongly in the oral side of poetry don't you?
SORLEY MACLEAN
Oh yes. Yes, I believe very strongly in the oral side of poery. I always have, and I think it is difficult for a Gael to be otherwise inclined. For instance, when you think that practically all Gaelic poetry up to this century, practically all, was meant to be sung or, in the case of the old heroic ballads, to be chanted. It's a very, very, very, very strong tradition in Gaelic, until this century, and after all, it's awfully difficult to get out of your roots altogether.