Features / Poets’ Corner – Christine De Luca
IN HER second instalment to our new occasional feature Poets’ Corner Carol Jamieson features local author Christine De Luca (nee Pearson).
Christine was born in Bressay and brought up in Waas (Walls) but now lives in Edinburgh. She writes in both English and Shaetlan and, although is known locally for working with children and promoting the dialect through her books, her main interest is poetry.
Her various awards over the last 25 years are too numerous to list but include Edinburgh’s poet laureate from 2014 – 2017 and recently being selected for the Scottish Poetry Library’s best Scottish poems four times.
She has been translated into Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Polish, Austrian-German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Welsh, Bengali, Turkish and even English…phew!
Christine has always loved poetry since a peerie lass but only started writing seriously from about age 30. It was mostly due to the fact that she had moved away by then and, in her words: “I tink writin wis a wye o daelin wi a sense o loss while celebratin Shetland, especially hit’s landscape, natural history an culture; an keepin hit alive i mi haert.”
I asked Christine to talk about the inspiration behind the poem Ivver Decreasin Circles.
“I wrat dis poem in Norrowa, while bidin wi poet Arne Ruste an his wife Anne Horn – da poem is dedicatit tae dem. Dey wir devotit tae dir aald collie dug, Kaisa. Bi da time I met her, shö wis very slow on her fit an no laek ta lest a lock langer. Arne telt me aboot her time wi dem an foo muckle shö meant ta dem. Da story o her as a puppy I fan very touchin – da lents he göd tae ta help her settle in.
“Da poem focuses on a walk we hed wi her while I wis dere, an foo I could see dat her peerie wirld wis shrinkin as shö cam aalder. Hit triggered memories o mi midder’s final years an foo her wirld shrank, but foo much shö still valued bein surroondit bi nature even if shö didn’t hae da strent ta walk very far.“
Ivver decreasin circles
for Arne Ruste and Anne Horn
Da aald hund kens da wye: leads wis
alang nairrow gaets trowe forest, owre
ice-cloored granite; brushes firnenst
wild rose, berry an hedder; checks
wha’s bön dis rodd afore her; snushes
underfit at pine cones, needles;
niffs aa her peerie pleasures.
Iverythin aboot her braethes
whit hit means ta belang.
Shö waits fir da man ta heist her
whan da wye gyets steep. He hes
a biscuit in his pooch ta tell her whit
he wants ta say: a hantle o wirds,
a dug’s lifespan. He minds whin
shö cam as a whalp, trustin him;
foo he med his bed aside her
fir a hael week, till shö settlt.
Daday, shö maks da moarnin gaet;
damoarn, maybe a turn oot aboot;
neist simmer laekly jöst da gairden.
Shö kens shö’s no da dug shö wis.
We röd on aboot times gien; dey’r as clear
as da view owre da fjord. A’m mindin
a hidmaist walk wi mi midder. We göd
ta Dale. Shö wis bön sayin fir a while
if I can jöst win oot fir a peerie little.
____________________
hund: dog; gaets: paths; cloored: scratched; firnenst: against; hedder: heather; wha’s bön dis rodd: who’s been this way; snushes: snuffles, sniffs; niffs: smells; peerie: small; heist: lift; pooch: pocket; hantle: measure, quantity; whalp: pup; hael: whole; daday: today; damoarn: tomorrow; neist: next; röd on: talk endlessly; hidmaist: final; midder: mother; göd: went; wis bön: had been; win oot: get outside; peerie little: short spell
More information on Christine De Luca can be found here.
And Carol Jamieson’s feature of Bruce Eunson is here.
