Assoc for Scottish Literature's status

Assoc for Scottish Literature

Hamish Henderson (1919–2002) – poet, soldier, intellectual, activist, songwriter – was born
#OTD, 11 Nov. A hugely important figure in Scottish culture, Henderson fought in North Africa & Italy in WW2. A 🎂🧵

There were no gods and precious few heroes…
—“Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica”

1/7

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/volumes/from_the_line/

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #culture #warpoetry #WW2 #HamishHenderson

There were our own, there were the others.
Therefore, minding the great word of Glencoe’s
son, that we should not disfigure ourselves
with villainy of hatred; and seeing that all
have gone down like curs into anonymous silence,
I will bear witness for I knew the others.
Seeing that littoral and interior are alike indifferent
and the birds are drawn again to our welcoming north
why should I not sing them, the dead, the innocent?

Hamish Henderson
FIRST ELEGY
End of a Campaign

There are many dead in the brutish desert,
who lie uneasy
among the scrub in this landscape of half-wit
stunted ill-will. For the dead land is insatiate
and necrophilous. The sand is blowing about still.
Many who for various reasons, or because of mere unanswerable compulsion, came here
and fought among the clutching gravestones, shivered and sweated,
cried out, suffered thirst, were stoically silent, cursed
the spittering machine-guns, were homesick for Europe
and fast embedded in quicksand of Africa agonised and died.
And sleep now. Sleep here the sleep of the dust.

There were our own, there were the others.
Their deaths were like their lives, human and animal.
There were no gods and precious few heroes.
What they regretted when they died had nothing to do with race and leader, realm indivisible,
laboured Augustan speeches or vague imperial heritage.
(They saw through that guff before the axe fell.) Their longing turned to
the lost world glimpsed in the memory of letters:
an evening at the pictures in the friendly dark,
two knowing conspirators smiling and whispering secrets; or else
a family gathering in the homely kitchen
with Mum so proud of her boys in uniform: their thoughts trembled
between moments of estrangement, and ecstatic moments
of reconciliation: and their desire
crucified itself against the unutterable shadow of someone
whose photo was in their wallets.
Then death made his incision.

Assoc for Scottish Literature replied to Assoc for Scottish Literature's status

“The revolutionary & insurrectionary spirit of radical love is very much present in Henderson, a wanderer at the creative edge, forever pushing back against the domineering discourses of officialdom”

—Mairi McFadyen, Hamish Henderson & the Liberated Life

2/7

https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2019/08/16/hamish-henderson-and-the-liberated-life/

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #culture #HamishHenderson

Assoc for Scottish Literature replied to Assoc for Scottish Literature's status

Quo life, the warld is mine.
The floo’ers and trees, they’re a’ my ain.
I am the day, and the sunshine.
Quo life, the warld is mine…

—Hamish Henderson’s “The Flyting o’ Life and Daith” – based on a 16th-century German folksong – is sung here by Alison McMorland

3/7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAheJjneNV4

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #culture #folksong #HamishHenderson

Quo life, the warld is mine.
Though ye bigg preesons o’ marble stane
Hert’s luve ye cannae preeson in
Quo life, the warld is mine.

Quo daith, the warld is mine.
I hae dug a grave, I hae dug it deep,
For war an’ the pest will gar ye sleep.
Quo daith, the warld is mine.

Quo life, the warld is mine.
An open grave is a furrow syne.
Ye’ll no keep my seed frae fa’in in.
Quo life, the warld is mine.

The Flyting o’ Life and Daith
Hamish Henderson

Quo life, the warld is mine.
The floo’ers and trees, they’re a’ my ain.
I am the day, and the sunshine
Quo life, the warld is mine.

Quo daith, the warld is mine.
Your lugs are deef, your een are blin
Your floo’ers maun dwine in my bitter win’
Quo daith, the warld is mine.

Quo life, the warld is mine.
I hae saft win’s, an’ healin’ rain,
Aipples I hae, an’ breid an’ wine
Quo life, the warld is mine.

Quo daith, the warld is mine.
Whit sterts in dreid, gangs doon in pain
Bairns wintin’ breid are makin’ mane
Quo daith, the warld is mine.

Quo life, the warld is mine.
Your deidly wark, I ken it fine
There’s maet on earth for ilka wean
Quo life, the warld is mine.

Quo daith, the warld is mine.
Your silly sheaves crine in my fire
My worm keeks in your barn and byre
Quo daith, the warld is mine.

Quo life, the warld is mine.
Dule on your een! Ae galliard hert
Can ban tae hell your blackest airt
Quo life, the warld is mine.

Quo daith, the warld is mine.
Your rantin’ hert, in duddies braw,
He winna lowp my preeson wa’
Quo daith, the warld is mine.

Assoc for Scottish Literature replied to Assoc for Scottish Literature's status

“One of the beastly sins of modern Scotland [is] that it’s a bit ashamed of the rich, riotous, very bawdy but also high spirited kindly & generous past.”

—Sex, Whisky & Rock & Reel: Dr Sarah Leith on Hamish Henderson’s reimagining of Scottish identity

4/7

https://scottishcriticalheritage.wordpress.com/2019/11/11/sex-whisky-and-rock-and-reel-hamish-hendersons-reimagining-of-scottish-identity/

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #culture #folksong #HamishHenderson

Assoc for Scottish Literature replied to Assoc for Scottish Literature's status

Hamish Henderson reading four poems: “Glasclune & Drumlochy”; “The Cell 1”; “The Cell 2”; & his translation of “Chimaera” by Dino Campana. Recorded April 1986 by Alexander Hutchsion at Edinburgh University’s School of Scottish Studies

5/7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTGHuddIOag

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #culture #poem #poetry #HamishHenderson

Assoc for Scottish Literature replied to Assoc for Scottish Literature's status

Roch the wind in the clear day’s dawin
Blaws the cloods heelster-gowdie ow’r the bay,
But there’s mair nor a roch wind blawin
Through the great glen o’ the warld the day…

—Hamish Henderson, “The Freedom Come-All-Ye
in The Golden Treasury of Scottish Verse, @canongatebooks

6/7

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #culture #folksong #HamishHenderson

The Freedom Come-All-Ye
Hamish Henderson

Roch the wind in the clear day’s dawin
Blaws the cloods heelster-gowdie ow’r the bay,
But there’s mair nor a roch wind blawin
Through the great glen o’ the warld the day.
It’s a thocht that will gar oor rottans
– A’ they rogues that gang gallus, fresh and gay –
Tak the road, and seek ither loanins
For their ill ploys, tae sport and play

Nae mair will the bonnie callants
Mairch tae war when oor braggarts crousely craw,
Nor wee weans frae pit-heid and clachan
Mourn the ships sailin’ doon the Broomielaw.
Broken faimlies in lands we’ve herriet,
Will curse Scotland the Brave nae mair, nae mair;
Black and white, ane til ither mairriet,
Mak the vile barracks o’ their maisters bare.

So come all ye at hame wi’ Freedom,
Never heed whit the hoodies croak for doom.
In your hoose a’ the bairns o’ Adam
Can find breid, barley-bree and painted room.
When MacLean meets wi’s freens in Springburn
A’ the roses and geans will turn tae bloom,
And a black boy frae yont Nyanga
Dings the fell gallows o’ the burghers doon.

Assoc for Scottish Literature replied to Assoc for Scottish Literature's status

Here’s a glorious rendition of Hamish Henderson’s “Freedom Come-All-Ye”, sung by Karine Polwart in the Italian Chapel, Orkney. The chapel was built & decorated by Italian POWs during WW2 using scraps & reclaimed materials, & is still in use today

7/7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PhuH2K5yzw

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #culture #folksong #HamishHenderson #WW2