FATHERS AND SONS
273
longwinded diatribe in a journal, the reader will perforce think that
instead of a
lever
you are using some antedeluvian props-that you
are
going
back to the infancy of mechanics itself....
But, enough, or I shall become longwinded myself.
PEEWEET
Peeweet, ye're a blithe-like birdie!
Whit makar has been fair to ye?
Yon whigmaleerie
0
a kaim gangs nid-nod
Heich on the hen-hoose-tap and whiles like the cock
Himsel ye swap aboot in the wind; 'peeweet,
Peeweet': a sang and sign
0
spring-an 0
But ye mak time dee to hear ye
And the giro and brattle
0
Feberarie,
And aa the airts gie a streetch
At the nod
0
yer heid, rna bird,
Ma spunkie, rna ferlie- and aa this
is
naethin to yersel!
PEEWEET: lapwing
WHIT : what
MAKAR : poet
WHIGMALEERIE: fantastic thing
KAIM: comb
HEIGH: high
WHILES : sometimes
(from
Ossi di Seppia)
Eugenio Montale
GIRN
&
BRATTLE: fret and turbulence, rain and wind
FERLIE: wonderful thing
(Translated from the Italian by Edwin Morgan)
