Document 129
Scots Haiku
Author(s): Mr Bruce Leeming
Copyright holder(s): Mrs Dorothy Leeming
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Scots
Today Scots is mainly a literary language. Drawing on several origins - the Inglis of the Northumbrian Angles, the tongues of the Picts, the Celtic Gaels and the Scandinavian Norsemen, as well as, later, Dutch and the French of the Auld Alliance - Scottis was at one time the principal language of the Scottish court and quite distinct from the English of the period (13-16th century).
Great literature in Scots was produced by writers like Barbour, Henryson and Dunbar, the 'Makars'. A revival took place in the 18th Century under Ramsay, Ferguson and Burns. A hundred years later in the 1870s Dean Ramsay was still able to write that, despite the remorseless decline of Scots and the nation's assimilation of Standard English, 'I personally recollect old Scottish ladies and gentlemen, proud members of ancient houses, who really spoke Scotch, not, mark me, English with an accent'. Then, earlier this century during the Scottish Literary Renaissance, Hugh MacDiarmid, Douglas Young, Maurice Lindsay and others once again recreated the art of writing in Scots, referring to their lexis as 'Lallans'.
Scots speech lives on today all over Scotland in lively dialectal versions which show marked regional variations in vocabulary and pronunciation. I have tried to be consistent in this regard. The English translations are as near literal as possible.
Haiku
THis form of poetic expression, deriving from ancient Chinese models, was perfected by Matsuo Basho in Japan during the 17th century. Ezra Pound (1895-1972) and The Imagists introduced it to the West early this century. Today haiku are being composed in the United States and all English-speaking countries, in France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Croatia and Romania. They are also being written in fringe languages such as Welsh and Irish Gaelic.
The haiku is restricted to three lines in the syllabic pattern 5-7-5, frequently divided by a caesura. However, since this framework provides for certain Japanese linguistic devices, haiku in other languages tend to a shorter length. There is no rhyme or metrical requirement. Usually a seasonal or nature reference is incorporated.
This is a deceptively simple poetry. It aims to keep personal feelings largely submerged and eschews 'poetical' words, similes or metaphors. Its true endeavour is to capture fleeting insights - 'haiku moments'. A poem's meaning may be obvious, pictorial perhaps, even occasionally humorous, but not uncommonly intimations of a profound character will arise, intensified by the compression of the words.
Some of the moods typical in haiku are compassion, serenity, paradox, wonder. I have sought, in addition, to infuse these haiku here and there with a few 'Scotch' idiosyncrasies, e.g., an awareness of Scotland's beauty but also of the unending struggle in nature, a certain preoccupation with the ghoulish and a wry familiarity with death. BL
Mindin AEL, wi' luve
Reid cluds lemin
at keek-o-day - refleckit
in the cray glaur
Red clouds glowing
at sunrise - reflected
in the pigsty mud
By the peth at daw
aneath new-apen hissels
cairds at brakfast
By the track at dawn
under fresh-sprung hazels
breakfasting tinkers
Hauf-road up the glen
a daurk wee lochan -
a cran tentie
Halfway up the glen
a dark little loch -
a heron watchful
On a sin-warm kaim
a hird sockin: faur ablow
a glede fidders
On a sun-warmed ridge
a shepherd resting: far below
a hawk hovers
Doon amang the birks
linties blithely jink:
cluds ahin the ben
Down in the birches
linnets happily flit:
clouds behind the hill
Birlin doon
the rowth o gean blume
taigles a bummer
Swirling down
the plenteous cherry blossom
delays a bee
Nune, cushie-doos
croodlin: he hauds the kame
o his deid wumman
Noon, wood pigeons
cooing: he holds the comb
of his dead wife
Auncient staunin stane:
sclimmin it cannie
a smaa kailworm
Ancient standing stone:
climbing it carefully
a young caterpillar
Suddent thunner -
the joco dug staps loupin
dumfoonert
Sudden thunder -
the cheerful dog stops jumping
aghast
I' the drumly burn
skelterin doon - a morkin
an a babbie's bunnet
In the mud-dark stream
rushing down - a dead sheep
and a baby's bonnet
Sabbath morn -
i' the kirkyaird toom tinnies,
a lassie's shae
Sunday morning -
in the churchyard empty cans,
a girl's shoe
At the Ranza burn
twa laddies guddlin troot:
abune, twa jets screich
At the Ranza burn
two boys tickling trout:
above, two jets scream
I' the smirr
heich abune the hotchin toun
ane maw wimplin
In the drizzle
high above the busy town
one gull meandering
Dreich the day:
the craws cannae fash thirsels
croupin
Dull today:
the crows can't be bothered
to caw
Hairst een
lown dayset: a cheet
rivin a taidie
Autumn evening
peaceful sunset: a cat
ripping up a small toad
Heich i' the corries
snaw: doon here het sin
- kye doverin
In the high corries
snow: down here hot sun
- cattle dozing
Hielan getherin
doolfu piobaireachd keens:
new thrissels grushie
Highland gathering
sad pibroch laments:
new thistles thriving
Een athort the bey
yatt lichts gliff yallochie
- tassies plinkin
Evening across the bay
Yacht lights gleam yellowish
- glasses tinkling
A whaup's wheeple
lane amang the hills -
bairnheid mindins
A curlew's cry
lonely in the hills -
memories of childhood
Twa meenits seelence
at the cairn: ane gizzen leaf
scartin the plainstanes
Two minutes silence
at the memorial: a dry leaf
scraping the paving stones
Daunerin blithe
i' the caul - kiltit callan
troosered lass!
Happily strolling
in the cold - kilted lad
girl in trousers!
In Auld Reekie
e'en the paurk flouers -
mim-mou'd!
In Edinburgh
even the park flowers -
affected!
Yon trystit lassie
dressin her Sunday coat
smirks hidlins
That engaged girl
ironing her best skirt
smiles secretly
Ladin the deid-kist
intil the pail - ane chiel
lunts a gun
Loading the coffin
into the hearse - one man
smokes a pipe
Cranreuch at daw
hoolets screichin - wraiths?
Aye, wi' toom wames
Hoar frost at dawn
owls screeching - ghosts? Yes,
with empty bellies
Loch o jeel skimmers
braw wi' gowden sin:
i' the wuids hairts dee
Frozen loch shimmers
beautiful with golden sun:
in the woods deer die
I' the snawie wynd
a chitterin gangrel:
toun lums reikin
In the snowy lane
a shivering vagrant:
town chimneys smoking
The bien kipple
sleep snog: whit wey fykie
the bawkie-birds?
The comfortable couple
sleep snugly: why are the bats
restless?
Ne'erday splore,
bauld hechts: the morn
mair weet
New Year party,
brave resolutions: still raining
in the morning
Munelicht glints
siller on the sauch plantin
- hoo daurk aneath
Moonlight shines
silver on the willow copse
- how dark below
Today Scots is mainly a literary language. Drawing on several origins - the Inglis of the Northumbrian Angles, the tongues of the Picts, the Celtic Gaels and the Scandinavian Norsemen, as well as, later, Dutch and the French of the Auld Alliance - Scottis was at one time the principal language of the Scottish court and quite distinct from the English of the period (13-16th century).
Great literature in Scots was produced by writers like Barbour, Henryson and Dunbar, the 'Makars'. A revival took place in the 18th Century under Ramsay, Ferguson and Burns. A hundred years later in the 1870s Dean Ramsay was still able to write that, despite the remorseless decline of Scots and the nation's assimilation of Standard English, 'I personally recollect old Scottish ladies and gentlemen, proud members of ancient houses, who really spoke Scotch, not, mark me, English with an accent'. Then, earlier this century during the Scottish Literary Renaissance, Hugh MacDiarmid, Douglas Young, Maurice Lindsay and others once again recreated the art of writing in Scots, referring to their lexis as 'Lallans'.
Scots speech lives on today all over Scotland in lively dialectal versions which show marked regional variations in vocabulary and pronunciation. I have tried to be consistent in this regard. The English translations are as near literal as possible.
Haiku
THis form of poetic expression, deriving from ancient Chinese models, was perfected by Matsuo Basho in Japan during the 17th century. Ezra Pound (1895-1972) and The Imagists introduced it to the West early this century. Today haiku are being composed in the United States and all English-speaking countries, in France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Croatia and Romania. They are also being written in fringe languages such as Welsh and Irish Gaelic.
The haiku is restricted to three lines in the syllabic pattern 5-7-5, frequently divided by a caesura. However, since this framework provides for certain Japanese linguistic devices, haiku in other languages tend to a shorter length. There is no rhyme or metrical requirement. Usually a seasonal or nature reference is incorporated.
This is a deceptively simple poetry. It aims to keep personal feelings largely submerged and eschews 'poetical' words, similes or metaphors. Its true endeavour is to capture fleeting insights - 'haiku moments'. A poem's meaning may be obvious, pictorial perhaps, even occasionally humorous, but not uncommonly intimations of a profound character will arise, intensified by the compression of the words.
Some of the moods typical in haiku are compassion, serenity, paradox, wonder. I have sought, in addition, to infuse these haiku here and there with a few 'Scotch' idiosyncrasies, e.g., an awareness of Scotland's beauty but also of the unending struggle in nature, a certain preoccupation with the ghoulish and a wry familiarity with death. BL
Mindin AEL, wi' luve
Reid cluds lemin
at keek-o-day - refleckit
in the cray glaur
Red clouds glowing
at sunrise - reflected
in the pigsty mud
By the peth at daw
aneath new-apen hissels
cairds at brakfast
By the track at dawn
under fresh-sprung hazels
breakfasting tinkers
Hauf-road up the glen
a daurk wee lochan -
a cran tentie
Halfway up the glen
a dark little loch -
a heron watchful
On a sin-warm kaim
a hird sockin: faur ablow
a glede fidders
On a sun-warmed ridge
a shepherd resting: far below
a hawk hovers
Doon amang the birks
linties blithely jink:
cluds ahin the ben
Down in the birches
linnets happily flit:
clouds behind the hill
Birlin doon
the rowth o gean blume
taigles a bummer
Swirling down
the plenteous cherry blossom
delays a bee
Nune, cushie-doos
croodlin: he hauds the kame
o his deid wumman
Noon, wood pigeons
cooing: he holds the comb
of his dead wife
Auncient staunin stane:
sclimmin it cannie
a smaa kailworm
Ancient standing stone:
climbing it carefully
a young caterpillar
Suddent thunner -
the joco dug staps loupin
dumfoonert
Sudden thunder -
the cheerful dog stops jumping
aghast
I' the drumly burn
skelterin doon - a morkin
an a babbie's bunnet
In the mud-dark stream
rushing down - a dead sheep
and a baby's bonnet
Sabbath morn -
i' the kirkyaird toom tinnies,
a lassie's shae
Sunday morning -
in the churchyard empty cans,
a girl's shoe
At the Ranza burn
twa laddies guddlin troot:
abune, twa jets screich
At the Ranza burn
two boys tickling trout:
above, two jets scream
I' the smirr
heich abune the hotchin toun
ane maw wimplin
In the drizzle
high above the busy town
one gull meandering
Dreich the day:
the craws cannae fash thirsels
croupin
Dull today:
the crows can't be bothered
to caw
Hairst een
lown dayset: a cheet
rivin a taidie
Autumn evening
peaceful sunset: a cat
ripping up a small toad
Heich i' the corries
snaw: doon here het sin
- kye doverin
In the high corries
snow: down here hot sun
- cattle dozing
Hielan getherin
doolfu piobaireachd keens:
new thrissels grushie
Highland gathering
sad pibroch laments:
new thistles thriving
Een athort the bey
yatt lichts gliff yallochie
- tassies plinkin
Evening across the bay
Yacht lights gleam yellowish
- glasses tinkling
A whaup's wheeple
lane amang the hills -
bairnheid mindins
A curlew's cry
lonely in the hills -
memories of childhood
Twa meenits seelence
at the cairn: ane gizzen leaf
scartin the plainstanes
Two minutes silence
at the memorial: a dry leaf
scraping the paving stones
Daunerin blithe
i' the caul - kiltit callan
troosered lass!
Happily strolling
in the cold - kilted lad
girl in trousers!
In Auld Reekie
e'en the paurk flouers -
mim-mou'd!
In Edinburgh
even the park flowers -
affected!
Yon trystit lassie
dressin her Sunday coat
smirks hidlins
That engaged girl
ironing her best skirt
smiles secretly
Ladin the deid-kist
intil the pail - ane chiel
lunts a gun
Loading the coffin
into the hearse - one man
smokes a pipe
Cranreuch at daw
hoolets screichin - wraiths?
Aye, wi' toom wames
Hoar frost at dawn
owls screeching - ghosts? Yes,
with empty bellies
Loch o jeel skimmers
braw wi' gowden sin:
i' the wuids hairts dee
Frozen loch shimmers
beautiful with golden sun:
in the woods deer die
I' the snawie wynd
a chitterin gangrel:
toun lums reikin
In the snowy lane
a shivering vagrant:
town chimneys smoking
The bien kipple
sleep snog: whit wey fykie
the bawkie-birds?
The comfortable couple
sleep snugly: why are the bats
restless?
Ne'erday splore,
bauld hechts: the morn
mair weet
New Year party,
brave resolutions: still raining
in the morning
Munelicht glints
siller on the sauch plantin
- hoo daurk aneath
Moonlight shines
silver on the willow copse
- how dark below
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APA Style:
Scots Haiku. 2024. In The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow. Retrieved 21 November 2024, from http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/?documentid=129.
MLA Style:
"Scots Haiku." The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2024. Web. 21 November 2024. http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/?documentid=129.
Chicago Style
The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech, s.v., "Scots Haiku," accessed 21 November 2024, http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/?documentid=129.
If your style guide prefers a single bibliography entry for this resource, we recommend:
The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech. 2024. Glasgow: University of Glasgow. http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk.
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Scots Haiku
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