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Translated and read by John MaCleod
Londinium
Cuir do chluas ri claisneachd –
agus cluinn na h-èighean de dh’ fheòil loghte,
an strì eadar an gobha agus an rothadair,
snìomhadh is sìneadh an ròpadair.
Gath na do shùilean le àilleadh
ceò na fiodha, le grèim
ammonia bho mhùin breunach.
Fada fo na tha seo tha comharra
dìoghaltas Boudicca a’ ruith anns
an t-sliseag dhearg thaine de dh’ iarann loisgte;
a’ sgoltadh loidhne de luath is chrèadh
air fhilleadh anns na clachan agus na leacan,
fiodh, seann theintean is cnàmhan.
A-nis air fhàisgeadh eadar Tuath is Deas
anns a’ chanàl maoth-phuill aige;
an abhainn aig aon àm a dh’ àraich Neanderthal,
Homo Sapiens; siùbhlaichean aonarach
a’ siabadh air falbh fad leth-millean bliadhna.
A’ chiad bothan 15,000 bliadhna roimhe,
a-nis na chathair-bhaile ioma-chànanach
a ghabhas ris na h-uile a thig –
sealgair, tuathanach, à-sheilbhichean.
Gaelic. Translated by John Macleod
© Anthony Fisher March 2016
Gaelic S
Spoken by 58,000 in Scotland.
It is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus is ultimately descended from Old Irish. Outside Scotland, a number of dialects, collectively and colloquially known as Canadian Gaelic is spoken in parts of Atlantic Canada particularly Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island where there are 1,365 speakers. In the 2011 census, there were 7,195 total speakers of “Gaelic languages” in Canada.
Translator John MaCleod is a native Gaelic speaker from Carloway in the Isle of Lewis, but has lived in Edinburgh since 1970 and is a self-employed translator/language consultant