William Gow
Have you heard about the Gaelic bard
Uilleam Ruighe ’n Uidhe? William Gow in English. He belonged to Rynuie in Strathspey. He was a poet and a hunter.
I’m going to read passages from a poem that William wrote about hunting the red deer in the Cairngorms. Here is the first verse:
Och, it’s me that’s sad
On the mountain by myself,
Staying in a wee pen
Of a bothy I built for my needs;
I didn’t have a spade or axe,
Or a tool around to hand
Except the strong, fine-pointed dirk
It’s with her I cut the turf.
In the second verse, William names the ‘Ban-Ghranndach’ – the ‘Grant maiden’. He means his gun. It was a practice of the old Gaels to give their gun a
feminine name. Gunpowder was useful for lighting q fire. And it was cold up on the hill:
The hose have frozen on me,
Before the wee smoke goes up,
The wind and snow and blizzard,
Assail me about the ear;
But I’ll grasp this Grant maiden,
Which I have hold of,
And the fire will be kindled for me
with gritty, hard powder.
Now, we know from another poem –
Allt an Lochain Uaine
– that William built a bothy next to that burn. That is in the upper end of Glen Derry. He names other places up there in his poetry. For example, the
Glas-allt and the Dubh-ghleann.
William was poaching on land that belonged to Lord Fife. He was there so often that he had a bottle of whisky ‘under a wisp of grass at the bottom of a
slope’. He would raise a toast to the stag and the landlord. Here is the final verse:
When I sit at ease,
Without reporting a misfortune,
I’ll get hold of a bottle
That’s under a whisp at the base of a slope;
If the companions happen
To be near to me at the time,
“Lord Fife and the antlered stag” –
The toast that goes around.
Uilleam Ruighe ’n Uidhe
An cuala sibh mun bhàrd Ghàidhlig Uilleam Ruighe ’n Uidhe? William Gow ann am Beurla. Bha e beò aig deireadh an ochdamh linn deug. Bhuineadh e do
Ruighe ’n Uidhe ann an Srath Spè. Bha e na bhàrd agus na shealgair.
Tha mi a’ dol a leughadh pìosan à dàn a sgrìobh Uilleam mu dheidhinn sealg nam fiadh anns a’ Mhonadh Ruadh. Seo a’ chiad rann:
Och, gur mi tha muladach
Sa mhonadh, ’s mi leam fhèin,
’S mi bhi ’tàmh an cròdhan beag
Bothain ’thog mi ’m fheum;
Cha robh spaid no tuagh agam,
No ball mun cuairt dom làimh,
Ach a’ bhiodag làidir bharra-chaol
’S ann leatha bhuain mi ’m fàl.
Anns an dàrna rann, tha Uilleam ag ainmeachadh ‘a’ Bhan-Ghranndach’ – ‘the Grant maiden’. Tha e a’ ciallachadh a ghunna. ’S e an cleachdadh a bha
aig na Gàidheil o shean a bhith a’ cur ainm boireann air gunna. Bha pùdar – no fùdar – a’ ghunna feumail airson teine a chur thuige. Agus bha i gu math
fuar sa mhonadh:
Tha na h-osanan air reothadh orm,
Mun tèid a’ cheòthag suas,
Tha gaoth is cur is cathadh ann,
’S e gabhail domh sa chluais;
Ach glacaidh mis’ Bhan-Ghranndach seo,
A tha nam làimh san uair,
Is fadaidh is’ an teine dhomh,
Le fùdar sgeireach cruaidh.
Nise, tha fios againn bho dhàn eile – ‘Allt an Lochain Uaine’ – gun do thog Uilleam bothan ri taobh an uillt sin. Tha sin ann an ceann shuas Gleann Doire.
Tha e ag ainmeachadh àiteachan eile shuas an sin anns a’ bhàrdachd aige. Mar eisimpleir, an Glas-allt agus an Dubh-ghleann.
Bha Uilleam a’ poidseadh air fearann a bhuineadh do Lord Fife. Bha e ann cho tric, ’s gun robh botal de dh’uisge-beatha aige ‘fo shop aig bun
bruthaich’. Bhiodh e a’ gabhail deoch-slàinte don damh agus don uachdaran. Seo an rann mu dheireadh:
’S nuair shuidheas mi air socair,
’S gun dosgainn bhith ri luaidh,
Bheir mi làmh air botal
Tha fon t-sop am bun na bruthaich;
’S ma thachras do na companaich
Bhith làimh rium anns an uair,
“Lord Fife is damh na cròice” –
An deoch-slàinte thèid mun cuairt.
