[chorus:]
It's a pity that I'm not on the island I love ,
the island of my heart where I was brought up,
it's a pity that I'm not on the island I love,
the island of the cold high hills
It is I who would be happy if right now I were
beside the peat stack, resting by the hillock;
with the most beautiful white mist coiling and floating
and falling around the shoulders of Blà-ven
[chorus]
I would wish to live in company with my love
in William's cottage by the waves on the shore
without us having to hear any more by day and night,
but sea and moor being close to us.
[chorus]
I would run barefoot on moor and heath,
if I could get over the straights ferry,
I'd go hurriedly to the village I love,
and the home where I got my upbringing.
[chorus]
I will see the Meall, and I will see the Sgorr,
the Quiraing's east slope and the peaks of the Storr,
Little Healaval and Big Healaval -
the thre stream delta and Geary/.
[chorus]
michealt
Robyn Carrigan
الأثنين, 13/12/2021 - 15:12
Written by Iain Kaid Maclean in 1914 in France. The lyrics above are slightly different from the lyrics given in wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eilean_Mo_Chridhe ), but they are what Art Cormack sings in the video (except that I've included the 4th stanza, although he doesn't sing it). I suspect that Cormack's version (except for omitting the 4th stanza) may be closer to the original than the wikipedia verson, as for example "traghad" is a much more likely geneitive singular of "tràigh" than "traigh" in gaelic poetry dating from the time of first World War (without the grave accent "traigh" it isn't even a gaelic word, and the genitive forms of tràigh in use during the last 150 years and more are tràgha, tràghad, and tràighe, so both spelling and inflection appear to be wrong in the wikipedia version). As the author was writing about how he missed Skye I would expect he will have known that Blath-Bheinn has more than one shoulder, so would probably write one of the plural forms ghuaillean (which is what Cormack, also a Skyeman, sings) or ghuailnean or gualaibh rather than the ghualainn, which is singular (although wikipedia translates it, incorrectly, as plural, it's actually dative singular), and the line "Gu'n éisd bhith..." looks like a crazy misunderstanding.
Unfortunately I can't lay my hands on the original text. And can't say much about the author, as there were several Iain Kaid Macleans in France in 1914 - at least one who died before the end of the war, and at least one who survived until 1935, both Skyemen, and I don't know which of these (if either rather than yet another) was the author. I'll maybe hunt for a relevant book.