Full Description
From the forests of Finland to the plain of Lombardy, from a Scottish beach to a river island in Hungary,Tom Hubbard deploys the riches of the Scots language to explore that tragicomic space we call Europe. The poems are variously tender and mischievous in their reatment of our all-too-human foibles - Hubbard believes that an international outlook and a parochial one (centred, in his case, on his native Fife) can be mutually enriching. The poems in THE CHAGALL WINNOCKS draw on the folklore of many European countries, not least that of Scotland - and indeed it is a retelling of a Fife legend, which opens this collection of poems, which have grown out of his travels in, and study of, the continent as a whole. Many of these poems tell stories, in the form of ballads or the reworking of traditional tales; conversely, this collection of poems could be seen as a series of short stories, albeit in verse form.Hubbard's new collection is a bold statement of faith in the Scots language, and echoes Hugh MacDiarmid's remarks on 'the unique blend of the lyrical and the ludicrous' which is possible in Scots, 'its Dostoevskian debris of ideas - an inexhaustible quarry of subtle and significant sound' ('A Theory of Scots Letters').
Contents
Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vi TALES O A STRAVAIGER 1 SCOTLAND Mephistophelean Ballant- Scherzo on ane Fife Legend 4 FINLAND The Lass Come Back Frae Trystin Wi Her Jo 7 DENMARK Homage til Carl Nielsen 9 Kierkegaard's Faust 13 BELGIUM Watter o the Auld Canals 15 Leuven Europa 17 FRANCE Oor Burgh 20 The Erseboond 23 The Colourist 25 SPAIN Sonnet 27 ITALY Sonnet 29 Twa Poems on the Commedia dell'Arte: Arlecchino o Bergamo Arlecchino Ironicomalinconico 31 The Angel o Duende 33 The Arlecchino Phenomenon 36 PubWeb 18/12/2012 10:41 http://www.nielsenbookdata.com/pubweb/PubBookDetail?isbn=9781907676215&view=true Page 3 of 3 Contents: GERMANY The Legend o the Leddy Richmodis 40 The Chagall Winnocks in Sanct Stephen's Kirk, Mainz 42 The Speirits 44 Fable o the Bird, the Cat, and the Pibroch 45 SWITZERLAND Schaffhausen Satori 47 The Emmick and the Gresslowper 51 Tamangur 54 AUSTRIA Fir My Cat 57 HUNGARY The Legend o the Leddy Margret 60 Minority Status 62 POLAND The Lyart Laird 65 Gdansk December 69 RUSSIA Raskolnikov 71 UKRAINE Scheherazade 73 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 74 WORDLEET / GLOSSARY 79 ABOUT THE AUTHOR
