Month: May 2023

Carlos Llaza: Arequipa, my hometown, is surrounded by three volcanoes. These omnipresent Apus mark the character of the place and its inhabitants. In fact, the town was originally built using large bricks of white rock known as ‘sillar’, extracted from quarries at the foot of the volcanoes. The idea of home as where we come… Continue reading Piedra Blanca / White Stane / White Stone

Dorothy Lawrenson: In reality, I think the multitude of choices a translator must make is less of an either/or situation than the metaphor presented in this poem. But I’m sure I’m often tempted to add some ‘vogie lichts’ to the source text if I find any to hand in the target language (Scots). Perhaps I… Continue reading On Owersettin / Sobre la Traducción / On Translation

Carlos Llaza: Poetry is much more than the corpus of existing poems or the genuine art of writing in verse. In Platonic terms, it can also be understood as mousiké, the secret life of each and all the arts. This hectic poem attempts to explore how poetry, in this wider sense, can be found in everyday objects,… Continue reading La Poesía / Poetry

Dorothy Lawrenson: The image of two people embracing as tightly as a spliced rope opened the door to a lot of nautical imagery, which leads up to an allusion (in the penultimate line) to the ballad of Sir Patrick Spens. In the ballad, seeing the new moon holding the old moon in her arms is… Continue reading Aubade / Alborada

Carlos Llaza: My wife and I have always dreamed of having a house by the sea. This short lyric is an attempt to use noble materials to construct a metaphor for family and commitment, facing the endlessness of the horizon. The voice that speaks and the person who writes overlap. This is dedicated to my Carly, who renews my universe… Continue reading Albañilería / Biggin / Bricklaying

Dorothy Lawrenson: I had been thinking about the difference between the solar and lunar calendars. This poem, first published in Eemis Stane, explores the contrast by riffing on the traditional gendering of the sun and moon, who are figured – not without an element of stereotype – as a lazy man and an uncomplaining woman.… Continue reading Cutty Days / Días Cortos / Short Days

Carlos Llaza: I am very fond of this strange wee poem. Originally published by Estación Poesía, it takes the beauty of an old chair as a pretext to reflect on how people, other beings and even objects come to existence and cling to it. While this is not mentioned in the poem, it was somehow… Continue reading Elogio de la Silla Vieja / Eulogy for the Old Chair / Eulogy fir the Auld Chair

Dorothy Lawrenson: Bladnoch is near to Wigtown in Dumfries and Galloway. My partner and I spent a couple of days camping there, in a tent that turned out not to be waterproof! Scots has an abundance of words for wet weather and wet places, so I enjoyed collecting some of them together in this poem.… Continue reading Bladnoch

Carlos Llaza: ‘La sobremesa’ deals with the most pleasurable aspect of eating with friends and family: proper conversation. While the speaker seems relaxed and willing to take his time, he is aware of the tacit urgency informal chat can provoke. Language and words are dynamic because our own reality is constantly renewing itself. New ways… Continue reading La Sobremesa / Efter Eatin / After Eating

Dorothy Lawrenson: I enjoy the opportunities that Scots sometimes offers for bringing the archaic into conversation with the contemporary. Here, the medieval concept of the wappenschaw – a muster of armed men – finds a modern echo in the image of the lads brandishing ‘light-sabres’ made of ice. This is another poem that goes back… Continue reading The Muckle Shockle / El Gran Carámbano / The Big Icicle