Scots featured poem - February 2010

This piece of writing was selected by the staff at the Scottish Poetry Library which receives Foundation funding from the Scottish Arts Council

Arc o Möns A arc o black möns owre da still sea. Mi bairns at isna boarn is shaestin me. ‘Faeder, dunna run; wait; da youngest een’s dead!’ Dey hing affa mi een. Da cock craas. Da sea, turnt ta stane, gaffs a hidmost gaff o her waves. ‘Faeder, dunna run!..’ Mi roars turns inta jasmine. Christie Williamson © 2009 from Arc o Möns  (Hansel Cooperative Press, 2009) www.hanselcooperativepress.co.uk

About the poet Christie Williamson spent his formative years in Yell, the second biggest island in Shetland. His poems have appeared in magazines and anthologies across Scotland and have been commended in competitions. He has read at the Wigtown Book Festival, StAnza and Aye Write.  In 2008/09 he was one of four mentees in St Mungo’s Mirrorball’s inaugural Clydebuilt mentoring scheme. Arc o Möns, translations of Federico Garcia Lorca’s poetry into the Shetland dialect, was published in 2009 by Hansel Cooperative Press. www.poetrypf.co.uk/christiewilliamsonpage.html

Inspiration for the Poem “Arc o Möns” was one of the first Lorca poems I translated.  I was captivated by the dream like imagery of the moon and the sea, two motifs which come up again and again throughout Lorca’s writing.  Against this backdrop, the narrator is running away from his responsibilities.   Although his children aren’t born, he is still there father, and the youngest one is still dead.  One of the challenges of translation is achieving the right sound and rhythm in the second language.  I have been very lucky, both in the vivid symbolism of Lorca’s Spanish originals, but also in having grown up with the Shetland dialect, which is very close to my heart and is made up of rich, full sounds.