#2025 - òran luaidh

 

2025

6.199

17.vii.25

òran luaidh

(waulking song)

the women call and come after

 

Hoirean ò hi ri ìthill iù

Ho ro hiu ro éileadh

Hoirean ò hi ri ìthill iù

            – traditional

 

 

mind for skelfs on the table

 

it’s most of the sun shone

and down through time

 

dawn dusk out of the otherwise day

they are translating the cloth

 

by wash, sing tweed the table round

 

with gossip, so much reputation

out of the mattering, this does

 

a kind of pride to sing –

the spinning, the weaving, the dyeing too

 

all the before of these inches to tighten

 

the rent from this, the pennies for need

 

they are passing along

 

hearts pour out

to sing the men whaling, the men at war

 

spring blooms, hills in lamblight

 

here’s the silly goat, croft climber

 

stale piss to add now

and pick up the pace

 

top of finger to the first knuckle

that’s how we measure the tightening too

 

a peatsmoke choke

sky high as blue

 

climb up to the sheiling

where secretly a heart is pledged

 

rough hands

love told too late

daft boy

 

the lamb in the grass

in the singing all round

 

and that’s your winter warm