Document 480
A Small Book of Translations: 32 - Glossary & Notes
Author(s): Alexander Hutchison
Copyright holder(s): Alexander Hutchison
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2. Furi qui neque: Loon is a lad; bawbees are coins, small change; gweed: is good; jaas are jaws; buckies are whelks (buccinum undatum); winner is wonder; deein is doing; wame is belly; reef is roof; taen is taken; pooshent is poisoned; maet is meat, or food generally; swite is sweat; fussle is a whistle; saat is salt; twal-month is a year; bool is a marble; blaud is to soil, besmirch; tak tent is take heed; sub is a loan; seekin is asking; athoot is without; graun is grand, perfectly fine.
Salve, nec minimo: Pirn taes are turned in, or pigeon, toes; glaikit is vacant; moo is mouth; denner is dinner; braggit: is boasted; reputed; piece is a snack; mealie: is a rustic or yokel; nae wyse is nonsensical; crazy.
Alfene, immemor: Freens are friends; breethers are brothers; wye is way; fit is what; pooers abeen are the powers above; fowk are folk; dee is do; faa is who; A wis is I was; bit is but; ween is wind; tee is too: dinna is don't; mine is remember or mind or take heed.
Amabo, mea dulcis: Priggin is pleading, beseeching; bawsey is strapping; Bellickie is a by-name for Isabella: ma is my; gowpin is double handful; wid is would; yett is gate; ging fidgin is get restless or eager; dauner is stroll; bide is stay; spunk for a lowe is a match for a fire or flame; dirl is quiver or pierce or resonate; dreel is a drill or row; canty is cheerful, comfortable; cooch is a couch; breeks are trousers; heich is high or elevated.
Quintia formosast: Pints are points; puckle is a few; beezer is a beauty, or generally something bigger and better; braw is brave or fine; bien (rhymes with been) is in good condition; gowans are blossoms, or daisies; deems are dames, women; gaithert til is gathered to.
Lesbia mi praesente: Back-hashin is criticising; abusing; douf is dull, slow-witted; nivver in't is disregarded; bubblin is blubbering; girnin is complaining; fashed is annoyed; bletherin is talking nonsense; bleezin is furious.
Adeste, hendecasyllabi: Farivver: is wherever; fae: is from; hale is whole.
Non (ita me di ament): Lats flee is lets fly; sotter is a mess; atween is between; a sicht is somewhat or considerably; thole is bear or tolerate; trap is a mouth; cuddie is a horse or a donkey: blaegart is a blackguard; hud him tee is hold him close; limmer is a slut; glaums is grips, catches; sook is suck; plooks are pustules; scaffie is a scavenger or refuse collector.
Caeli, Lesbia nostra: Yon is that; wynds are alleys; pilks is peels or strips; nevvies are descendants, grandsons.
Disertissimi Romuli nepotum: Catullus addressed this poem to Cicero.
Noli admirari: Oxters are armpits.
Vivamus, mea Lesbia: Lat's is let's; tak wir taik is go our way; maik is a halfpenny; havers means nonsense; coorse is ill-willed, severe, unkind; aal is old; sclim is climb; peerie is little, brief; flichter is a glimmer or flicker; tint is gone or lost; sweven is a dream; streks is stretches; smoorichs are kisses, caresses; syne is next; forby is in addition; fan is when; dicht the sclate is wipe the slate; or is lest; golach is an insect, and an odious person; gaurs is causes, does; gin is if; jaloust is guessed or suspected; aft is often; clapt an cleikit is kissed and embraced.
4. Ces longues nuicts: Dreich is dismal; traichlin is slow-moving ungainly; traal is a sloven; sweir is unwillingly; bantie is a bantam; blate is loath, spiritless; mirk is dark; sair-deen is sore-done-by; rax't is stretched; dwined is wasted or pined away; athoot is without; unco is uncanny, extraordinary; swage is assuage; stoonin is aching with pain or thrill; lees are lies; coorse is unkind, rough or fierce; tween is a twin; caal is cold or unfeeling; bogle is a ghost, spirit, phantom; coories is snuggles; swack is limber; chaets is cheats; dool is grief or distress.
Chacun me dit: Funcy is fancy; smitten is infected; loon is a lad or boy; bap is a plain bun; glyte is cock-eyed; chiel (like childe) is a chap, a lad; doazent is stupid, dopy; feel is daft or idiotic; thristle is a thistle.
A mon retour: Fan is when; neep is a turnip; caal is cold; haun is hand; quine is girl; gane is gone; cra is crow; doos are pigeons; boos are boughs, branches; slabbery is slobbery; jine is join; alane is alone; marra is marrow; wither is weather.
Puis qu’elle est: Bit is but; birsels is bristles; ataa is at all; fit wye is what way, how, why; clim is climb; laft is loft; bairn is a child; loo is love.
7. The dinnle o bells: Fan is when; gloamin is twilight; toonlan is townland; raivelt is confused, uncertain; mine (or mind) on is remember; puddocks are frogs; meen-bow: the moon sometimes has a bow or aureole; trist is sad, crickets are crickets (but in Scots they're grasshoppers too); rigs are ploughed strips of land; dinnle is a peal; ootlan is a stranger; feart is afraid; canny here is steady, gentle, pleasant; skelp is a long stretch or expanse of ground; fidgin is excited, eager; hyne awa is far away.
Swank as a shalt: The aul man here is father; gien's is given me (though it refers to the plural form "us"); a hunner tackets – a hundred hobnails – turns out to be ten pounds; swank is lithe, agile, strong; shalt, sheltie or shaltie is a Shetland pony, stocky and full of vitality. Pasolini's horse in "Bel coma un ciaval" conveys something of Whitman's lines: "Stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical – I and this mystery here we stand". However, the Scots "cuddie" or "horsie" don't quite fit, and I opted for the spirited "shalt", accepting the difference in scale. Oot blin billy is a mix of things, but blin is blind, billy can be a lover, a term of endearment, and the phrase suggests being out on a spree; crouse is confident, spirited; curcuddy is a low crouching dance; ee is you; lowse is loose; big eens are big ones; keckle is cackle, laugh loudly: haffets are side locks of hair; reid een are red eyes; rantin is partying; wytelessness is innocence, blamelessness; pownie is a pony; aa is all.
Reivers: Reive, herry, rype, pike and sneck are all words meaning to sneak, rob or steal; in ticht is in tight – with the sense of close or snug; fin is to feel or sense; mirk is dark; meadie (or meedie) is meadow; streckit is stretched out; yon is that; tattie-poke a sack or bag; shadda is shadow; roddens are rowan trees; fother is fodder (grass is used in the original); the nicht is tonight; preed is pursed for a kiss; til is to; starn a star.
Furth an awa: Furth an awa is out, or outside, and away; quid is could; richt fleg a real fright; gawkin is peering, staring; ahint is behind; fan is when; birkie refers here to a smart, well-built youth or boy; virra loon is the very boy; houlet (or oolet) is an owl; spirkin is sparking, lively; laun is land; skellich is a shrill cry; caain t' mine is calling to mind, remembering; fit is what; ill t' kinnle is hard to light; een are eyes; faa is fall; glee is a sport or entertainment; bummin is ringing, echoing; nae ma ain is not my own; deid-chack here is a noise as the premonition of death; leesome is bright, fine, pleasant; caller is fresh; caa'd thegither is mixed or brought together; tint is lost, or gone beyond recall; oors aither is ours either; scuddie is naked; yokin is a yoking, joining together; also a stint, or shift of work; soonless is silent, soundless.
The rose lintie: The rose lintie is the male linnet in bright red plumage (Pasolini's lújar is a siskin – close enough); bleed is blood; jo is love or sweetheart; chirmin is warbling, chittering; deein is dying; wyve is the weave of a net; greetin is crying, weeping; murnin is mourning; skirlin is laughing, or crying out shrilly; lift is sky.
8. The daftie names his tunes: ken is know, recognize, acknowledge; flees are flies; jaickit is jacket; hamely is homely, plain; quine is a girl; yoakit is yoked; engaged, working; quidna is couldn’t; pit is put; masel is myself
Zebranie: Clanjamfrie is a crowd, a press of people; mair is more; faa in wi is fall in with, consort with; fly is surreptitious, sneaky; gabbin is talking, gossipping; a puckle and a curn are a few, a handful; syne is then or next; gaffit is burst out laughing; clockit doon is settled down; fasht is angry, upset; raise up is rose up; miscaa is insult, abuse; steer o aul lichties is a crowd of old believers; breengin is barging or bustling around; fushionless is weak, useless; spurtle-shanks are legs as skinny as wooden spoons or porridge stirrers; wifies are women; canny is astute; richt ill-trickit is malevolent; slap dab is right or straight.
Deef the mirk: Deef is deaf; mirk is dark or night; shadda is a shadow; haar is a mist off the sea; birk is birch-tree; cassay-stane is cobble-stone; houlat is an owl; his lane is on his own; blin is blind; bumlick is a pebble; girse is grass; mowdie is a mole; aneth the grun is underneath the ground or earth; roddan is a rowan; dool is pain or grief; laich is a stetch of low lying land; lift is the sky; wid is a wood; craik is a harsh cry; hale hypothec is the whole of everything, the works; baists are beasts; tee is too; yaff is an ignorant or useless person; glisks is sees, catches sight of; kens is knows; spiks is speaks.
Un éclair au hasard: Fire-flaucht is a lightning strike, (fire-flake); heezed is raised or hoisted.
The waukrife oor: Waukrife is disinclined or unable to sleep; vigilant; oor is hour; blae is blue; fell is mighty; finner is a whale, like a rorqual; birlin is whirling; stottin is springing, bouncing; dingin is driving; unkent is unknown, unfamiliar; mair is more; wir is our; hinmaist is hindmost; hunkered is crouched, squatting; shaws are stalks; qweets (cf cuits) are ankles; glaur is mud; plaistert is plastered; puggelt is at a standstill, exhausted; virry is very; taigelt is entangled, confused; hamesucken dool is nostalgia, home sickness; clockin doos are roosting pigeons; aye is always; gey is quite or very; dandrum is a whim; ettlin t' eild is expectation or intention to age; smittin is an infection; dirlin is a thrilling or desire; lat lowse is release, let go; blithe is happy, content; bumbazed is perplexed, stupified; douce is sweet; dindill (or dinnle) is a reverberation; sough (or souch) is a sound, a sigh, a rustling; swalm is a swoon, insensibility; dwaum is a reverie, brown study; nae scowf is no scope or clearance; yett is a gate or door; smaa bit bleeze is a blink of flame; fankle is a tangle; waverand is wavering, tremulous; hine awa is far away, distant; richt is right, just; fan is when; flichert is flickered; dowie lift is the gloomy or overcast sky; sair-forfochten is hard-pressed; exhausted; freen is friend; retrait an faa is retreat and fall; mekill-bowkit corpus is the huge body; hurlt is thrown, flung; ootby is beyond, at some remove; ahint is behind; tulloch is a hillock; tak wir taik is make our way, proceed; aathin is everything; kythit is shown or revealed, made manifest; undeemous is extraordinary, unpredictable.
Salve, nec minimo: Pirn taes are turned in, or pigeon, toes; glaikit is vacant; moo is mouth; denner is dinner; braggit: is boasted; reputed; piece is a snack; mealie: is a rustic or yokel; nae wyse is nonsensical; crazy.
Alfene, immemor: Freens are friends; breethers are brothers; wye is way; fit is what; pooers abeen are the powers above; fowk are folk; dee is do; faa is who; A wis is I was; bit is but; ween is wind; tee is too: dinna is don't; mine is remember or mind or take heed.
Amabo, mea dulcis: Priggin is pleading, beseeching; bawsey is strapping; Bellickie is a by-name for Isabella: ma is my; gowpin is double handful; wid is would; yett is gate; ging fidgin is get restless or eager; dauner is stroll; bide is stay; spunk for a lowe is a match for a fire or flame; dirl is quiver or pierce or resonate; dreel is a drill or row; canty is cheerful, comfortable; cooch is a couch; breeks are trousers; heich is high or elevated.
Quintia formosast: Pints are points; puckle is a few; beezer is a beauty, or generally something bigger and better; braw is brave or fine; bien (rhymes with been) is in good condition; gowans are blossoms, or daisies; deems are dames, women; gaithert til is gathered to.
Lesbia mi praesente: Back-hashin is criticising; abusing; douf is dull, slow-witted; nivver in't is disregarded; bubblin is blubbering; girnin is complaining; fashed is annoyed; bletherin is talking nonsense; bleezin is furious.
Adeste, hendecasyllabi: Farivver: is wherever; fae: is from; hale is whole.
Non (ita me di ament): Lats flee is lets fly; sotter is a mess; atween is between; a sicht is somewhat or considerably; thole is bear or tolerate; trap is a mouth; cuddie is a horse or a donkey: blaegart is a blackguard; hud him tee is hold him close; limmer is a slut; glaums is grips, catches; sook is suck; plooks are pustules; scaffie is a scavenger or refuse collector.
Caeli, Lesbia nostra: Yon is that; wynds are alleys; pilks is peels or strips; nevvies are descendants, grandsons.
Disertissimi Romuli nepotum: Catullus addressed this poem to Cicero.
Noli admirari: Oxters are armpits.
Vivamus, mea Lesbia: Lat's is let's; tak wir taik is go our way; maik is a halfpenny; havers means nonsense; coorse is ill-willed, severe, unkind; aal is old; sclim is climb; peerie is little, brief; flichter is a glimmer or flicker; tint is gone or lost; sweven is a dream; streks is stretches; smoorichs are kisses, caresses; syne is next; forby is in addition; fan is when; dicht the sclate is wipe the slate; or is lest; golach is an insect, and an odious person; gaurs is causes, does; gin is if; jaloust is guessed or suspected; aft is often; clapt an cleikit is kissed and embraced.
4. Ces longues nuicts: Dreich is dismal; traichlin is slow-moving ungainly; traal is a sloven; sweir is unwillingly; bantie is a bantam; blate is loath, spiritless; mirk is dark; sair-deen is sore-done-by; rax't is stretched; dwined is wasted or pined away; athoot is without; unco is uncanny, extraordinary; swage is assuage; stoonin is aching with pain or thrill; lees are lies; coorse is unkind, rough or fierce; tween is a twin; caal is cold or unfeeling; bogle is a ghost, spirit, phantom; coories is snuggles; swack is limber; chaets is cheats; dool is grief or distress.
Chacun me dit: Funcy is fancy; smitten is infected; loon is a lad or boy; bap is a plain bun; glyte is cock-eyed; chiel (like childe) is a chap, a lad; doazent is stupid, dopy; feel is daft or idiotic; thristle is a thistle.
A mon retour: Fan is when; neep is a turnip; caal is cold; haun is hand; quine is girl; gane is gone; cra is crow; doos are pigeons; boos are boughs, branches; slabbery is slobbery; jine is join; alane is alone; marra is marrow; wither is weather.
Puis qu’elle est: Bit is but; birsels is bristles; ataa is at all; fit wye is what way, how, why; clim is climb; laft is loft; bairn is a child; loo is love.
7. The dinnle o bells: Fan is when; gloamin is twilight; toonlan is townland; raivelt is confused, uncertain; mine (or mind) on is remember; puddocks are frogs; meen-bow: the moon sometimes has a bow or aureole; trist is sad, crickets are crickets (but in Scots they're grasshoppers too); rigs are ploughed strips of land; dinnle is a peal; ootlan is a stranger; feart is afraid; canny here is steady, gentle, pleasant; skelp is a long stretch or expanse of ground; fidgin is excited, eager; hyne awa is far away.
Swank as a shalt: The aul man here is father; gien's is given me (though it refers to the plural form "us"); a hunner tackets – a hundred hobnails – turns out to be ten pounds; swank is lithe, agile, strong; shalt, sheltie or shaltie is a Shetland pony, stocky and full of vitality. Pasolini's horse in "Bel coma un ciaval" conveys something of Whitman's lines: "Stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical – I and this mystery here we stand". However, the Scots "cuddie" or "horsie" don't quite fit, and I opted for the spirited "shalt", accepting the difference in scale. Oot blin billy is a mix of things, but blin is blind, billy can be a lover, a term of endearment, and the phrase suggests being out on a spree; crouse is confident, spirited; curcuddy is a low crouching dance; ee is you; lowse is loose; big eens are big ones; keckle is cackle, laugh loudly: haffets are side locks of hair; reid een are red eyes; rantin is partying; wytelessness is innocence, blamelessness; pownie is a pony; aa is all.
Reivers: Reive, herry, rype, pike and sneck are all words meaning to sneak, rob or steal; in ticht is in tight – with the sense of close or snug; fin is to feel or sense; mirk is dark; meadie (or meedie) is meadow; streckit is stretched out; yon is that; tattie-poke a sack or bag; shadda is shadow; roddens are rowan trees; fother is fodder (grass is used in the original); the nicht is tonight; preed is pursed for a kiss; til is to; starn a star.
Furth an awa: Furth an awa is out, or outside, and away; quid is could; richt fleg a real fright; gawkin is peering, staring; ahint is behind; fan is when; birkie refers here to a smart, well-built youth or boy; virra loon is the very boy; houlet (or oolet) is an owl; spirkin is sparking, lively; laun is land; skellich is a shrill cry; caain t' mine is calling to mind, remembering; fit is what; ill t' kinnle is hard to light; een are eyes; faa is fall; glee is a sport or entertainment; bummin is ringing, echoing; nae ma ain is not my own; deid-chack here is a noise as the premonition of death; leesome is bright, fine, pleasant; caller is fresh; caa'd thegither is mixed or brought together; tint is lost, or gone beyond recall; oors aither is ours either; scuddie is naked; yokin is a yoking, joining together; also a stint, or shift of work; soonless is silent, soundless.
The rose lintie: The rose lintie is the male linnet in bright red plumage (Pasolini's lújar is a siskin – close enough); bleed is blood; jo is love or sweetheart; chirmin is warbling, chittering; deein is dying; wyve is the weave of a net; greetin is crying, weeping; murnin is mourning; skirlin is laughing, or crying out shrilly; lift is sky.
8. The daftie names his tunes: ken is know, recognize, acknowledge; flees are flies; jaickit is jacket; hamely is homely, plain; quine is a girl; yoakit is yoked; engaged, working; quidna is couldn’t; pit is put; masel is myself
Zebranie: Clanjamfrie is a crowd, a press of people; mair is more; faa in wi is fall in with, consort with; fly is surreptitious, sneaky; gabbin is talking, gossipping; a puckle and a curn are a few, a handful; syne is then or next; gaffit is burst out laughing; clockit doon is settled down; fasht is angry, upset; raise up is rose up; miscaa is insult, abuse; steer o aul lichties is a crowd of old believers; breengin is barging or bustling around; fushionless is weak, useless; spurtle-shanks are legs as skinny as wooden spoons or porridge stirrers; wifies are women; canny is astute; richt ill-trickit is malevolent; slap dab is right or straight.
Deef the mirk: Deef is deaf; mirk is dark or night; shadda is a shadow; haar is a mist off the sea; birk is birch-tree; cassay-stane is cobble-stone; houlat is an owl; his lane is on his own; blin is blind; bumlick is a pebble; girse is grass; mowdie is a mole; aneth the grun is underneath the ground or earth; roddan is a rowan; dool is pain or grief; laich is a stetch of low lying land; lift is the sky; wid is a wood; craik is a harsh cry; hale hypothec is the whole of everything, the works; baists are beasts; tee is too; yaff is an ignorant or useless person; glisks is sees, catches sight of; kens is knows; spiks is speaks.
Un éclair au hasard: Fire-flaucht is a lightning strike, (fire-flake); heezed is raised or hoisted.
The waukrife oor: Waukrife is disinclined or unable to sleep; vigilant; oor is hour; blae is blue; fell is mighty; finner is a whale, like a rorqual; birlin is whirling; stottin is springing, bouncing; dingin is driving; unkent is unknown, unfamiliar; mair is more; wir is our; hinmaist is hindmost; hunkered is crouched, squatting; shaws are stalks; qweets (cf cuits) are ankles; glaur is mud; plaistert is plastered; puggelt is at a standstill, exhausted; virry is very; taigelt is entangled, confused; hamesucken dool is nostalgia, home sickness; clockin doos are roosting pigeons; aye is always; gey is quite or very; dandrum is a whim; ettlin t' eild is expectation or intention to age; smittin is an infection; dirlin is a thrilling or desire; lat lowse is release, let go; blithe is happy, content; bumbazed is perplexed, stupified; douce is sweet; dindill (or dinnle) is a reverberation; sough (or souch) is a sound, a sigh, a rustling; swalm is a swoon, insensibility; dwaum is a reverie, brown study; nae scowf is no scope or clearance; yett is a gate or door; smaa bit bleeze is a blink of flame; fankle is a tangle; waverand is wavering, tremulous; hine awa is far away, distant; richt is right, just; fan is when; flichert is flickered; dowie lift is the gloomy or overcast sky; sair-forfochten is hard-pressed; exhausted; freen is friend; retrait an faa is retreat and fall; mekill-bowkit corpus is the huge body; hurlt is thrown, flung; ootby is beyond, at some remove; ahint is behind; tulloch is a hillock; tak wir taik is make our way, proceed; aathin is everything; kythit is shown or revealed, made manifest; undeemous is extraordinary, unpredictable.
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A Small Book of Translations: 32 - Glossary & Notes
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