The Wild Geese by Mary Oliver - Owersettin in Scots
Below is one of my favourite poems in translation - a Scots owersettin of the ‘The Wild Geese’ by poet Mary Oliver. The poem first appeared in the anthology Dream Work (1986). I asked my dad, poet Ian McFadyen, to translate this for me as a Christmas present in 2016. So precious! The poem takes us - the reader - out of a moment in our pressured world, and transports into another moment – one vastly more real, more open, more understanding. Her words are wonderful, inspiring, sustaining, precious things. This is a poem I have come back to again and again when life just gets too much.
THE WILD GEESE
Ye dinna hae tae be guid.
Ye needna walk a hunner miles
ower the desert on yer knees, repentin.
Ye maun jist let the saft craitur yer body is
lue whaur it maun lue.
Tell me yer wanhowp an yer wirry:
Ah’ll tell ye mine –
an atween-hauns the warld gaes on.
Atween-hauns the sun an the
clear wee chuckie-stanes o rain
are shiftin ower the launskips,
ower wide parks an deep wids,
ower hie bens and runnin waters.
Atween-hauns the wild geese,
hie i the clear blue lift,
are heidit hame again.
Whasomiver ye are,
nae maitter whitwey lanely,
the warld offers itsel tae yer imagination,
cries on ye lik the wild geese,
stere an dirlin – ower an ower
proclaimin yer place
i the faimly o things.
Ian McFadyen, Owerset frae Mary Oliver:
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
I am absolutely delighted that this poem also inspired musicians Sally Simpson and Catriona Hawksworth to compose this stunning piece of music, recorded on their wonderful album DUO. You can listen here.
