Review of Dat Trickster Sun
Christine De Luca's Dat Trickster Sun, a well-produced pamphlet from Mariscat, contains Shetlandic poems interspersed with English ones. It ends with an ambitious poem on the subject of dialect, which is mostly in English. The middle section here quoted talks of who decides what is dialect. The poet first suggests "it is the boundaries and commissions/ that decide," but is that true?
It's the way our forefathers moved To the forest floor, and in the tonality Of their vocal chords said 'I' and 'You' In a thousand different ways ...
... It's the famous thesaurus that suggests three meanings for dialact - other than dialect and language - speciality, unintelligibility and speech defect.
...dat Heron Heights and Hegrehøyden is baith languages but Hegri-heichts is dialect, dat Hrossagauker an Snipe is language but Horsegock is dialect.
The answer comes at the end, in Shetlandic:
Hit's da passion we haad whin we nön ta wirsels, whin we baal soond fae wir bosie inta da heevens whin we lay a wird o love apön een anidder whin we dunna budder wi nairrow definition.
Review of 'Dat Trickster Sun', Sally Evans, Northwords Now Issue 28, Autumn 2014
Poems
- Talking MindfulnessMariscat, 2014
- DiscontinuityScottish Poetry Library, 2012 High Low
- DNAThe Island Review, 2013 Low