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Modern Scottish Gaelic Poems

by D (Ed.) Macaulay

ISBN: 9780862414948
Imprint: Canongate Classics
Publication Date: Jan 2001
Format: Paperback
Price: £4.99
Stock Status: in stock

This indispensible anthology contains selections of the best works by Scotland’s most acclaimed modern Gaelic poets. Designed as much for English readers of Gaelic, the poems are presented with line-for-line translations. These translations have been made by the poets themselves, thereby maximising the retention of the spirit and form of the originals. The anthology is comprehensively introduced and edited by Donald MacAulay.

Sorley MacLean was born in 1911 in Osgaig on Raasay, a physical and cultural landscape which had no small effect on his poetry. He worked as a teacher whilst writing poetry, spending sixteen years as headmaster of Plockton Secondary School, before moving to Skye. Here he lived until his death in 1996, survived by his wife and two of his three daughters.

George Campbell Hay (1915-1984), son of novelist John MacDougall Hay, was born in Elderslie, Renfrewshire. Like MacLean, his poetry shows much of the influence of his early years living in Argyll, but also his deep concerns with nationalism.

Iain Crichton Smith (1928 -1998) was born in Glasgow but moved to the Isle of Lewis aged two. He retired from his teaching career to write full-time in 1977, and was awarded an OBE in 1980.

Derick Thomson was born in 1921 on the Isle of Lewis. Educated at the Universities of Aberdeen, Cambridge and University College of North Wales, he would later teach at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. He was the founder of Gairm magazine, and its editor and publisher since 1953.

Donald MacAulay is Professor of Celtic at the University of Glasgow.

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