Corrieneuchin: Scots Haikus In Celtic and English

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Corrieneuchin: Scots Haikus In Celtic and English

Corrieneuchin Paperback – July 20, 2016 by John McDonald

Well, as am 'thinking I dinna ken Muckle of Celtic, then comes McDonald ! And all the reading I've done of the works of Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott will make any willing traveler more familiar, certainly not fluent, in a wonderful and ancient language that gave us much of what we call modern English, for a'that, as the Bard of Scotland might say.

Travels in Scotland reveal the special quality of the landscape ; one almost designed for a certain group to populate, even the plants are special and green is more green in Scotland. Anyway, I happen to be from Scots, so I can tell you from the heart, these poems are gems.

Each Haiku is measured in perfect Celtic and then below translated in perfect English and gorgeous and moving and transcendental, this one especially caught my attention :

in Celtic :

her auld dug's deid-

ilka day

she stravaigs its ghaist

in English :

her old dog is dead-

every day

she walks its ghost

The human and other animals ; mortality that rolls from generation :

in English :

round the wall
family photos
watching him die

in Celtic :

roon the wa’s
faimilie photies
takkin tent o’s deein

McDonald’s poetry expresses a sense of time that is itself timeless.

May I heartily recommend to all this wonderful book. I shall treasure it on my shelf of Burns and Sir Walter Scott, to read from as often.

- Mary Barnet

Editor-in-Chief for 20 years of PoetryMagazine.com