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Cho binn ri smeòrach air geug. As melodious as a song thrush on a branch. Tha m’ aire air an smeòraich anns an Litir seo. Bheir sinn sùil air dà dhàn ainmeil anns a bheil smeòrach. Chaidh an sgrìobhadh le bàird chliùiteach.

’S e a’ chiad bhàrd Iain mac Fhearchair ’ic Ìomhair à Uibhist a Tuath. Bidh sibh eòlach air ’s dòcha mar Iain MacCodruim. B’ e am fear eile Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair. 

Innsidh mi dhuibh mu MhacCodruim an toiseach, agus an dàn aige ‘Smeòrach Chlann Dòmhnaill’. Seo an t-sèist:

Hoilibheag hilibheag hó ail il ó, Hoilibheag hilibheag hó ró i,

Hoilibheag hilibheag hó ail il ó, Smeòrach le Clann Dòmhnaill mi.

Chan eil ann an Hoilibheag hilibheag ach briathran gun bhrìgh, no òran na smeòraich.

Carson a bha ball de Chlann ’ic Codruim a’ sgrìobhadh mu Chlann Dòmhnaill? Uill, bha ceann-cinnidh nan Dòmhnallach a’ toirt taic mhòr do dh’Iain. Seo mar a thachair e.

Sgrìobh Iain dì-mholadh mu obair thàillearan Uibhist. Bha na tàillearan feargach. Dhiùlt iad uile aon ghrèim eile fhuaigheal don bhàrd. An ceann greis, bha aodach Iain robach.

Chunnaic an ceann-cinnidh, An Ridire Seumas Dòmhnallach, e. ‘Carson a tha do chuid aodaich a’ tuiteam às a chèile, Iain?’ dh’fhaighnich e. Dh’aithris Iain a’ bhàrdachd a chuir fearg air na tàillearan. ’S dòcha gun robh an ceann-cinnidh a’ gabhail dragh gun sgrìobhadh Iain rudeigin dhen aon seòrsa mu dheidhinn-san. Co-dhiù, thug e obair is àite-fuirich dha!

Aig toiseach Smeòrach Chlann Dòmhnaill, tha am bàrd ga chur fhèin ann an riochd smeòraich. Tha an t-eun brònach. Anns an dàrna rann, ge-tà, tha an smeòrach ga lorg fhèin ann an suidheachadh nas fheàrr:

Smeòrach mis’ air mullach beinne, ’g amharc grèin is speuran soilleir;
Thig mi stòlda chòir na coille, ’s bidh mi beò air treòdas eile.

Anns an leabhar aice ‘Songs of Gaelic Scotland’, tha Anna Latharna NicGillÌosa ag ràdh gur dòcha gu bheil an t-atharrachadh bho bhròn gu dòchas a’ comharrachadh beatha a’ bhàird fhèin. Carson? Uill, innsidh mi dhuibh an-ath-sheachdain.

Cho binn ri smeòrach air geug. As melodious as a song thrush on a branch. My attention is on the thrush in this Litir. We’ll look at two famous poems in which there is a thrush. They were written by renowned poets.

The first poet is Iain mac Fhearchair ’ic Ìomhair from North Uist. You will perhaps know him as John MacCodrum. The other was Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair.

I’ll tell you about MacCodrum to begin with, and his poem ‘the thrush of Clan Donald’. Here is the chorus:

Hoilibheag hilibheag hó ail il ó, Hoilibheag hilibheag hó ró i,

Hoilibheag hilibheag hó ail il ó, Smeòrach le Clann Dòmhnaill mi.

Hoilibheag hilibheag are just vocables, or the song of the thrush. 

Why was a member of the MacCodrums writing about Clan Donald? Well, the chief of the MacDonalds was giving John strong support. Here’s how it transpired.

John wrote [a] dispraise [poem] about the work of Uist tailors. The tailors were angry. They refused to sew one more stitch for the poet. In due course John’s clothes were tattered.

The clan chief, Sir James MacDonald, saw him. ‘Why are your clothes falling apart, John?’ he asked. John recited the poetry that [had] angered the tailors. Perhaps the clan chief was worried that John would write something of the same ilk about him! Anyway, he gave him work and a place to stay!

At the beginning of Smeòrach Chlann Dòmhnaill, the bard puts himself in the guise of a thrush. The bird is sad. In the second verse, however, the thrush finds itself in a better situation:

I am a thrush on a mountaintop, Looking at the sun and clear skies;

I shall come steadily to the wood, And I shall live on other sustenance.

In her book ‘Songs of Gaelic Scotland’, Anne Lorne Gillies says that perhaps the change from sadness to reflects the poet’s own life. Why? Well, I’ll tell you next week.