"The cranreuch"

The day started cold and snowy and has now descended into heavy sleety rain. Great! So an inside blip was called for.

When I returned home last week and collected Cara, my friend Kate handed me my Christmas card. Kate is an artist, often working from commissions, and I was thrilled on a number of levels when I opened the card as Cara is the model for her pastel rendering of an idea inspired by a poem by Humberto Ak'abal, a Guatemalan poet. Ak'abal's poetry has lovingly been translated from Spanish into Scots by Kate's brother James Robertson in a fascinating book called Drum of Stone. In case the writing is too small, here is the poem called The cranreuch (which translates to Hoar frost)

In the cranreuch
the stars drew portraits o themsels.
Wi the dawn
cam a dug lickin the gress.
or, wha kens,
mibbe he wis eatin stars.

I discovered that James Robertson is a well known Scots author who writes fiction based on actual events in Scottish history. For any blipper that might be interested a couple of his novels are entitled "Joseph Knight" and "And the land lay still", the latter being set in twentieth century Scotland. By the way they are written in English, not broad Scots.

I am off to a concert tonight where one of my friends is singing so I am hoping a bit of festive spirit runs off on me. At least the tree is down from its two year hibernation in my attic so I suppose that is a start.