I’M sure many of your readers appreciated the fine article on Sorley MacLean and George Campbell Hay by Alan Riach (Born out of war, May 17). The article concentrates on the war poetry of both men and indeed they did both contribute remarkable war poetry.
It is fascinating to consider that as the the armies advanced across North Africa, many a soldier carried home with him a souvenir – perhaps a German Luger – but Campbell Hay was such a talented linguist that he picked up both Italian and Arabic as he marched.
Hay was not just a war poet, he was a poet of the sea and of Scottish nationalism. Many of his poems were written for the Scots Independent newspaper. More than that, he wrote poetry of hope using startling and memorable images to carry home his message.
READ MORE: Born out of war: The second great tide of twentieth century Gaelic poetry
On a number of occasions he used the images of a tree stump and grey ashes of a fire. For the first, as we approach the stump that is all we see and then it becomes apparent that the stump is sprouting anew. The grey ashes at first appear to be the remains of a fire, but as we touch them we spring back because there are yet glowing embers – the fire is still there!
Perhaps one of his best-known poems nowadays is The Four Winds of Scotland, but his Gaelic poem A’Mhuir (The Sea) deserves a wider public. It describes the sea in all its various moods and then finishes with the remarkable lines, “Is ann tha rubha cul gach rubha, baghan nach eol duinn is ‘s bailtean puirt ann...”
There is a headland beyond each headland;
Bays we do not know and ports there are.
There is a boat under our feet to set sailing,
The wind at her heels and the old sea round us.
And there is not, dear, on all the earth,
Full satisfying or a true journey’s end
For the love of wandering in man.
Peter MacKenzie
Longniddry, East Lothian
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