Sunday, 22 August 2010

A Poetry Bus poem: from Skye News

This week's Poetry Bus challenge is to write a poem about sleep, or more correctly the first impressions on waking up. As usual my contribution to the driver's jingling cap is a Limerick.


A somnambulist from Portree
Was fast asleep in a tree
Until an owl pecked his nose
And ripped holes in his clothes
Screeching Out of my house now with thee!

and now as the limerick begs it a translation into Scottish, at my request, from John MacDonald at the zenspeug blog -

a sleeperie stravaiger frae Portree
wis doverin ower in a tree
syne a hoolet dabbit his taes
an wrocht cloots o's claes
skirlin: oot o ma hoose wi ye!

______
gw/jm
2010
*in John's version nose changed to toes for flowing rhyme
°the Hieronymus Bosch image is from Wikipedia Free Pictures
Posted by at

14 comments:

  1. Jinksy22 August 2010 at 15:55

    I wish I woke up to such sensible thoughts... :)

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  2. John McDonald22 August 2010 at 16:00

    lets try this Gwilym:

    a sleeperie stravaiger frae Portree
    wis doverin ower in a tree
    syne a hoolet dabbit his taes
    an wrocht cloots o's claes
    skirlin:oot o ma hoose wi ye!

    I changed nose to toes to get the flowing rhyme - good limerick
    john

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gwil W22 August 2010 at 17:28

    Aye, John!
    Just the job, I'll now put it up right up there under 'Skye News'!
    Diolch,
    gwilym

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Weaver of Grass22 August 2010 at 17:44

    Love this but will not attempt to read the Scots version!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Gwil W22 August 2010 at 18:06

    OK Pat, I can see that, but maybe you could try a broad Yorkshire dialect for me?
    gwilym

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  6. Dominic Rivron22 August 2010 at 23:28

    I don't think I've read a Scots limerick before (although I did read A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle).

    ReplyDelete
  7. Gwil W23 August 2010 at 08:53

    Dominic,
    I'll tip ma bonnet to ye. Aye!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Titus23 August 2010 at 10:12

    I just love the thought of a somnabulist from Portree...
    Plus, magnificent translation to sleeperie stravaiger

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  9. Gwil W23 August 2010 at 13:16

    Titus, you're right, it's a wonderful translation from John MacDonald.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Erratic Thoughts23 August 2010 at 15:33

    Ahh! A scottish limerick is a first for me...
    I liked the english version (because I could not decipher the scottish one:-()
    I absoultely liked the sleepwalker!

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  11. Gwil W23 August 2010 at 16:56

    Thanks ET. I love all JM's words. And for an owl, a hoolet, that says it all.

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  12. Peter Goulding23 August 2010 at 23:46

    I think the Scottish version is very onomatopaeic, although I've no idea what is happening.

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  13. Totalfeckineejit24 August 2010 at 02:22

    Ha!That's cool, and I love the translation best!
    PS Isn't sonambulist a fine word?

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  14. Gwil W24 August 2010 at 07:05

    PG I haven't any idea what's happening myself, I was asleep when I wrote it.
    TFE, somnambuilst is one of those amazing words like lugubrious. You could make a definitive list of such words. We could all send you a word or two. Lugubrious would be mine. I reckon it was Christy Brown's favourite word. He's a fabourite poet of mine.

    ReplyDelete

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