An Innocent in Scotland: More Curious Rambles and Singular Encounters by David McFadden

Author:David McFadden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: NCL
Published: 2016-12-05T16:00:00+00:00

The world is still beautiful though you are not in it,

Gaelic is eloquent in Uist though you are in Hallin Hill and your mouth without speech.

–Sorley Maclean, “Elegy for Calum I. Maclean”

—

I asked Mrs. McScampi what she thought of the music of Christine Primrose. She said she liked her, but here on the mainland they’re not really that enthused, because they took Gaelic in school but they didn’t get fluent. And the mainland isn’t a real Gaelic area. So now they’ve books and tapes at home and are trying to brush up. But they’re not getting far for some reason. I suggested English translations of the lyrics should be included with the tapes, so you would know what she was singing her heart out about. Mrs. McScampi looked shocked.

“Oh no, you couldn’t translate those songs into English, you couldn’t. It’d sound silly, because in Gaelic you say everything backward.”

“Like, give me an example in English.”

She started scratching her head and couldn’t think of one.

“Like, would you say, ‘In English an example give me?’ ” I said.

“Nope, that’s not it.” She couldn’t explain, but she said, “It’s well known that you can’t translate Gaelic into English.” She’s obviously never been to the Clan Donald Museum, or read the beautiful poetry of Sorley Maclean in English translation.

“It’s not that we don’t like Gaelic. It’s that we’re not fluent in it yet. It’s a strange language. If you translate it directly into English you get garbage. Nobody would understand it.”

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