Dimitri: Scots Poems Poem by Sheena Blackhall

Dimitri Keaw

Dimitri Keaw, a gleg Buchan Jackdaw
Bides at Lower Bogheid, on a lum
Wi a skreich an a caw, he is cockie an braw
Wi his hoose an his fine cosy bum

Wi his siller-tapped heid, he's a cannie wee breed
As a reiver, he chores wi élan
Bit he mairried fur life, fin he chuse him a wife
He's a far safer bet than a man!

The neebors neist door, flitted doon frae Kintore
Flooded oot; They'd tae say faist farewells
Bit they dinna faa oot, ower the reef, or the spoot
Na, they keep their ainsels tae thirsels

Sae Dimitri Keaw, thon maist sonsie jackdaw
(Far smerter than thon bird at Rheims)
Is the king o Bogheid; he's got tricks in his bluid
Ay hotchin wi pliskies an dreams!


The Curler's Coort

Twa o my kin gaed throwe the curler's coort
Their lips wir steekit on the ongauns there
It wis weel-kent a rowth o drink wis taen
Bi aa involved in thon high-jinks affair

I've heard it said a goat wis mangst the thrang
An whyles a brukken neb or shank or airm
In Coorts langsyne, fin things gaed ooto haun
Itherwise, fowk cam tae little herm

A grown-up plisky, secrets kittle up
The weary darg o kintra life an wyes
Licht-hairtit, as fin a fat brosie wife
Sats doon tae rest, rifts, an lats oot her steys


Awfu Weather

Awfu weather…fine fur dyeuks
A win that wid sandpaper plooks
It turns umbrellas inside oot
Like ony brukken watter spoot
It poors doon sarks, it drooks yer hair
Stair-roddies stottin here an there
Turn roads tae burns, an burns tae linns
An wheechs awa fowks' wheelie bins
As coorse as Noah's trial bi watter
An aye the on-ding, splooter-splatter


Scots Owersets o Poems bi Mark O'Connor, Australian poet

1.Lingua Romana
Latin is a leid
As deid as deid can be;

Desk-tap graffiti rules. Bit I
Fa wastit ma bairnhood on deid leids, noo spikk
The saft leevin ane far aathin's bi/wi/frae.

It killt the auncient Romans
An noo it's killin me

Latin dirkit an spreid weel, ootlaistit
The less deadly Germans, won hauf
The Americas- aye yet keeps
Its eechie or ochie i an u, the dweeble Spanish s

Mony nouns in -is we fin
Tae the masculine pit in

In Italy the stinch declensions mell
Wi Teuton slang; fare an venire hae swapped
Sides; an ire, tae gae, is gane

Yet aa the wald leids dee at the hinnereyn:
Greek o grammar an cliques; Latin
O solidifeed rules an Renaissance pedantry;
French o coorse admirals an ower-subtle wirds;
Inglis an Chinee o their screivit forms;
Rooshun o subjects' ill-will. Challengers ee
Spanish, an each ither's blin spots, spitefu-like;
Bein aff-takkin tae the French, or Sassenach towrists, whyle
Ilkie year the new street-spikk rowes oot: biftek, robot,
Kaput, stress, Kodak, jeans, futbol, boutique,
- A kist sic-like as Saxon herds vrocht
Tae owergie boeuf an mouton tae their lairds.


2.Nativity

Here Mary skooshes the milk frae a warm breist
Ben Christ's wee neive. Joseph, unfairly
Auld, thinks on a Jewish wirkers weird, whyle his
Kirk-lovin wife, kneels, wi faith in her Creation.
Sae far, doubtless, frae fit first happened, gin
There iver wis a staa. Ahin,
The coo an cuddie baith ken exactly foo
Tae rowe an tongue their hey ontae their teeth.


3.Extract: section one of A Javanese Pieta

In rikk the bairn-mither hunkers,
Newest loon pn lap, sellin
Hett bottles o 7-Up
Tae indifferent towrists.

Cameras ettle tae catch thon physog, that the street
Has walloped tae wechty-lidded peace. She is
Skeely in heat, clart, hunger, the airts
O drinkin an keechin in public
Canals; cooers frae rain aneth blue plastic
Squars; kens birth-stoons an sooklin pleisurs,
She an her son, belum orang
-‘not yet a person'
Tint o hope, she's likewise tint o fear.
Hatred subtracts; haein eneuch,
Plots; bit wae
Breeds.
Anely Natur, say her een,
Coorse as tigers..


Deed tae the Warld

Ma laddie lay deed in his flat on a warm July at gloamin
Oot on their balconies, neebors, like spurgies, cheepin
Sklaiked aboot bettin chitties, fitbaa, the price o baccy

It was an evenin fur gowf, fur luvers' trysts an delichts
Fowk steered hame frae their wirk
Swyty an trauchelt, sikkin a bite tae ett
A shooer, a pint in the bar

The pair ben the landin, argybargyin as usual
The quine doonstairs, bleachin the reets o her hair
Ootbye, a sparkie, ficherin wi his car
The car bunnet up like a whale raxin its moo

In the kintra, his faither wis oot in the gairden
Hyowin the dreels atween piz
Ben the toon, I wis turnin the pages o a buik
Ae sister hid jist jeloused she wis cairryin a bairn

Ma laddie lay deed tae the warld
An oor afore oor lives cam crashin doon