Here we have a translation or owersetting, but it is a stray  owersetting from a new book of original poems in Scots and English, approximately half and half, followed by a story in Scots, by the now well published Scots writer Tom Hubbard. The writer is from Kirkcaldy, although he has travelled extensively working in Scottish literature.

The publisher is Grace Note Publications, in Ochtertyre, Perthshire, and the price is £7.99. It is a sign of publishing health to see an independent imprint for books in Scots.

The book is titled The Flechitorium and carries ballads in Scots, and various feisty poems in sections called Gaitherins, with an introduction by William Hershaw and a rather extensive glossary of 20 pages (approx 500 words), the value of which really depends on who is expected to read the book.  It is well produced with a bright cover and boasts 105 pages including the inside back cover.

A Flechitorium is a flea-pit cinema and the book is suitably full of the unexpected. Recommended.

Scottish Muid

owerset from the Hungarian of Lajos Áprily by Tom Hubbard

Haar on the watter, haar in the parks,
River andwhite haar o the north.
Oh wha has hushed wi her ain milk
This lown earth?

There’s tides that swurl ayont aa sicht
           Ablow the black craig o the ness.
The drookit sheep hae cooried doun
           Dovin on the weet gress.

There’s uncou dreamin in this airt,
            Whaur the birks greet throu the souch:
The echo o an auld-warld ballant    
            In ilka castle-neuk.

And the daurk fisher’s boat
            Growes ti a ghaist-ship on the seas
And faddoms deep, Sir Patrick Spens
            Lies in a dwaam o young leddies.

The sea-maws stoiter i the lift,
  Blinly they faa ti the grey earth.
Belike I’m dreamin nou masel,
            That here I’m daunerin I the north.

And at Sanct-Aundraes bi the haar
            Raither than bi the mune convoyit,
There walks in sleep thon braw Scots queen,
            Her doo’s neck spattered ower wi bluid.

Owerset by Tom Hubbard