(no subject)

[gwynhefar]

Hallowe'en poem #2.

For those not fluent in Scots dialect, I've included footnotes at the bottom. These are pretty much my own interpretation, so pickier Scots folk feel free to correct or elaborate.


As I was walking all alane[1],
I heard twa corbies[2] making a mane[3];
The tane[4] unto the t'other say,
'Where sall[5] we gang[6] and dine to-day,
Where sall we gang and dine to-day?'

'In behint yon auld fail[7] dyke[8],
I wot[9] there lies a new slain knight;
And naebody kens[10] that he lies there,
But his hawk, his hound, and lady fair,
His hawk, his hound, and lady fair.

'His hound is to the hunting gane[11],
His hawk to fetch the wild-fowl hame[12],
His lady 'a ta'en[13] another mate,
So we may mak[14] our dinner sweet,
We may mak our dinner sweet.

'Ye'll sit on his white hause-bane[15],
And I'll pike[16] out his bonny blue een[17];
Wi ae lock o his gowden[18] hair
We'll theek[19] our nest when it grows bare,
We'll theek our nest when it grows bare.'

'Mony[20] a one for him makes mane[21],
But nane sall ken where he is gane;
Oer his white banes[22], when they are bare,
The wind sall blaw[23] for evennair[24],
The wind sall blaw for evennair.'

[1]alone
[2]two crows (or ravens)
[3]to 'mak a mane' literally means 'to make a moan' and can mean both complaining (as in this line) or true grieving (as in the last stanza). It is significant that the poet uses the same phrase for the crow's discussion of the knight as for his friends and relatives grieving for him.
[4]the one
[5]shall
[6]go
[7]I've heard this translated as "fell" as referring to the unlucky state of the ditch the knight is lying in, but also as meaning simply "dirt".
[8]ditch
[9]know, with the implication of trivia
[10]knows, with the implication of 'understand' or 'comprehends'
[11]gone
[12]home
[13]taken
[14]make/have
[15]forehead
[16]peck
[17]eyes
[18]golden
[19]thatch
[20]many
[21]here 'to mak mane' means to grieve
[22]bones
[23]blow
[24]evermore