# Transcript

SORLEY MACLEAN
GLAC A' BHAIS
Thubhairt Nasach air choireigin gun tug am Furair air ais do fhir na Gearmailte 'a' choir agus an sonas bas fhaotainn anns an arich'.
'Na shuldhe marbh an "Glaic a' Bhais" fo Dhruim Ruidhiseit, gill' og 'S a logan sios m' a ghrusidh 'S a thuar grisionn.
Smaoinich mi air a' choir 'S an agh a fhuair e bho Fhurair, bhith tuiteam ann an raon an air gun eiright tuilleadh;
air a' ghreadhnachas 'S air a' chliu nach d' fhuair e 'na aonar, ged b' esan bu bhronaiche snuadh ann an glaic air laomadh
le cuileagan mu chuirp ghlas' air gainmhich lachduinn 'S i salach-bhuidhe 'S lan de raip 'S de spruidhlich catha.
An robh an gille air an dream a mhab na h-Iudhaich 'S na comunnaich, no air an dream bu mhotha, dhiubh-san
a threoraicheadh bho thoiseach a1 gun deoin gu buaireadh agus bruaillean cuthaich gach blair air sgath uachdaran?
Ge b'e a dheoin-san no a chas, a neoichiontas no mhiorun, cha do nochd e toileachadh 'na bhas fo Dhruim Ruidhiseit.
SIMON MACKENZIE
DEATH VALLEY
Some Nazi or other has said that the Fuehrer had restored to German manhood the 'right and joy of dying in battle'.
Sitting dead in "Death Valley" below the Fuweisat Ridge a boy with his forelock down about his cheek and his face slate-grey;
I thought of the right and the joy that he got from his Fuehrer, of falling in the field of slaughter to rise no more;
Of the pomp and the fame that he had, not alone though he was the most piteous to see in a valley gone to seed
with flies about grey corpses on a dun sand dirty yellow and full of the rubbish and fragments of battle.
Was the boy of the band who abused the Jews and Communists, or of the greater band of those
led, from the beginning of generations, unwillingly to the trial and mad delirium of every war for the sake of rulers?
Whatever his desire or mishap, his innocence or maglignity, he showed no pleasure in his death below the Ruweisat Ridge
IAIN CRICHTON SMITH
I like this poem very much because I think it shows a kind of, what you might almost call a Greek justice, especially in the last verse there:
SIMON MACKENZIE
Whatever his desire or mishap, his innocence or maglignity, he showed no pleasure in his death below the Ruweisat Ridge
IAIN CRICHTON SMITH
It's very strongly focused, I presume this was an actual individual that you actually saw?
SORLEY MACLEAN
Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes. He, I was almost obsessed with the face of the boy. There wasn't a mark on him, and he looked so young. He was killed, obviously, by a bomb blast, or mine blast. The point is he was sitting up straight, which was curiously piteous in its way.
IAIN CRICHTON SMITH
Yes. You decided to put this epigraph at the top:
SIMON MACKENZIE
Some Nazi or other has said that the Fuehrer had restored to German manhood the 'right and joy of dying in battle'.
SORLEY MACLEAN
I thought it was desirable at the time, because, you see, I had been struck by the phrase that I saw translated somewhere, before, before this.
IAIN CRICHTON SMITH
Yes. Sorley, is the epigraph common in Gaelic poetry? I know that you've used it in "Hallaig" I think.
SORLEY MACLEAN
I can't think it is common at all in older Gaelic poetry.
IAIN CRICHTON SMITH
I can't bring to mind very many myself, no. The other thing is there are two verses here which run into each other without a break:
SIMON MACKENZIE
of the pomp and the fame that he had, not alone, though he was the most piteous to see in a valley gone to seed
with flies about grey corpses on a dun sand dirty yellow and full of the rubbish and fragments of battle.
IAIN CRICHTON SMITH
Is it common for Gaelic verses to run into each other like that, and not be self-contained? Though I suppose it is quite common in modern English poetry, but is it common in Gaelic poetry?
SORLEY MACLEAN
Well, I suppose it has become fairly common nowadays. This was written in '43, or perhaps even in the end of '42, and certainly it wasn't common then.
SORLEY MACLEAN
AN TE DH'AN TUG MI …
An te dh' an tug mi uile ghaol cha tug i gaol dhomh air a shon; ged a chuirradh mise air a sailleabh cha do thuig i 'n tamailt idir.
Ach tric an smuaintean na h-oidhchr an uair bhois m' aigne 'na coille chiair, thig osag chuimhne 'g gluasad duillich, ag cur a furtachd gu luasgan.
Agus bho dhoimhne coille chuim, o fhrairnhach snodhaich 'S meangach rneanbh, bidh eubha throm: carson bha h-aille mar fhosgladh faire ri latha?
SIMON MACKENZIE
SHE TO WHOM I GAVE
She to whom I gave all love gave me no love in return; though my agony was for her sake, she did not understand the shame at all.
But often in the thoughts of night when my mind is a dim wood a breeze of memory comes, stirring the foliage, putting the wood's assuagement to unrest.
And from the depths of my body's wood, from sap-filled root and slender branching, there will be the heavy cry: why was her beauty like a horizon opening the door to day?
IAIN CRICHTON SMITH
I suppose in this one again we come back to this relationship between nature, imagery and people.
SORLEY MACLEAN
Well, this poem came out of very, very unusual circumstances, which left me for over two years in a kind of perplexity. It is true that from the time I was a young boy, I was obsessed with woods and mountains. You see, we had those wonderful woods of Raasay when I was a young boy, with every kind of tree imaginable. Well, I suppose they're almost obsessive images in, in my verse. You will notice here, I think, the restraint of the assonances. And something almost like a dying foal, which I think actually suits the mood of the poem. There is about this poem a kind of hesitancy. A kind of coming down, a hesitancy suggesting, I think, a perplexity, and it was written in a time of great perplexity.
IAIN CRICHTON SMITH
Yes, I think I understand what you mean, because in some of the other poems that you've done, some of the love poems, you get a kind of harmony which is given by the assonances, whereas here you don't actually use in the fourth line any kind of harmony with the second line in any of the verses. So I suppose this, this really replicates, in a way, the lack of harmony in the poem itself. I can understand that.