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Translation
The Ocean's Circle
All of us are on an ocean steering a circuit through our lives,
sailing a dark boat lost in the sea's grip.
The wind is on our backs and the boat is keeping ahead
and for us neither time nor the ocean will make any sense at all.
The sea, it is calm, it is wild, it is vast,
it is beautiful, it is mysterious, it is implacable and deep.
Oh, but us, we are blind, we have nothing but a life.
Raise the sail, take up the oar, so that we get up to speed.
But I hope and expect1 that when the sun is going down
they will see me steering westwards over to Uist on the circle.
Oh the ocean's circle, it will always be turning back
with me to the fair coastal meadows2 in the west where the day began.
- 1. "duil" can mean "hope" and can also mean "expectation"; when it's repeated , as here, it seems reasonable to use "hope and expect" in English
- 2. machair is in common use in Scottish English and is given in the OED as valid English; but most English speaking people don't know this Gaelic word, so I've translated it as "coastal meadows"; basically it's coastal plain supporting grass and a variety of wild flowers on soil which has a high sand (ground shell sand, rather than sandstone sand) content, often used for grazing cattle or sheep
michealtRunrig: Top 3
| 1. | An Toll Dubh |
| 2. | Alba |
| 3. | Chí mi'n geamhradh |
Idioms from "Cearcall a' Chuain"
| 1. | All at sea |
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