Brendan King has sent me this beautiful Gaelic poem, set to music, and illustrated poignantly with bilingual subtitles. It’s written by a soldier in the trenches during World War One to his true love back home in the Outer Hebrides.
It’s so beautiful that one only has to close one’s eyes to imagine that one has been transported to Lothlorien.
Domhnall Ruadh Choruna’s “The White Swan” — With Billingual Lyrics
Lovely. I recently saw Gaelic musician Julie Fowlis perform at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She’s a treasure from North Uist, Hebrides.
Domhnall Ruadh Choruna, the author of the poem, was also a native of North Uist. In fact, he is still regarded as the island’s greatest poet ever. This song is not only considered his greatest work, but is the most famous love poem ever written in Scottish Gaelic. I have listened to many recordings of it, but I consider this one by Julie Fowlis to be the best.
Ironically, Domhnall Ruadh did not marry the woman he wrote this poem for. Although he never revealed the reason, the oral tradition of North Uist states that her father disapproved of Domhnall and refused to permit the marriage.