Description
In Acair san talamh / Anchor in the land, Beth Frieden’s debut pamphlet of poems moves back and forth across the Atlantic to explore family and nature with humour and curiosity. Written in Scottish Gaelic and English by an American immigrant to Scotland, these are poems that thrill in the wild and the intimate.
From the forests of New England to the tenements of Glasgow these are intensely felt and finely honed poems of adventure, motherhood, dislocation and relocation; alive to the personal, political and linguistic questions that our homes ask of us.
Beth Frieden is a poet and an actress, and a mother. She grew up in the US and moved to Scotland in 2008, where she learned Gaelic. She writes in both English and Gaelic now, and received a New Scottish Writer’s Award in 2021 from the Scottish Book Trust for Gaelic poetry.
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Ann an Acair san talamh / Anchor in the land, a’ chiad phamflaid bàrdachd aig Beth Frieden, bidh a’ bhàrdachd a’ gluasad a-null ’s a-nall, thar a’ Chuain Shiar, gus beachdachadh air teaghlach is nàdair le àbhachd is iongantas. Air a sgrìobhadh sa Ghàidhlig is sa Bheurla le in-imriche Ameireaganach ann an Alba, seo dàin a chuireas gaoir san leughadair, a tha fiadhaich is dlùth-chaidreach.
Eadar coilltean Nua-Shasainn is teanamantan Ghlaschu, tha iad air am mothachadh gu domhain, na dàin fìnealta làn driod-fhortain, màthaireachd, dì-ionadachaidh is ath-ghluasaid; beò is làn cheistean pearsanta, poilitigeach is cànanan a chuireas dachaigh romhainn.
Is bàna-bhàrd is bana-chleasaiche a th’ ann am Beth Frieden, cho math ri màthar. Rugadh i anns na Stàitean Aonaichte, mus deach i a dh’Alba, gus fuireach ann ann an 2008, far an do dh’ionnsaich i a’ Ghàidhlig. Bidh i a’ sgrìobhadh anns a’ Bheurla is sa Ghàidhlig, a-nis, agus chaidh Duais nan Sgrìobhadairean Ùra a bhuileachadh oirre le Urras Leabhraichean na h-Alba, le bàrdachd na Gàidhlig fa prosbaig.
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Nuair a leugh mi obair Beth, chuimhnich mi na bha ann am bàrdachd: taisbeanadh stèidhichte air faireachdainn. Chan eil dad staoin mu na dàin seo. Tha iad làn iongnaidhean – ìomhaighean annasach, contrarrachd, maothachd ri nàdar is daoine, ann an ruitheaman a guth fhèin – an rud as duilghe a chruthachadh.
When I read Beth’s work, I was reminded of what poetry is: an outward expression of feelings. There’s nothing shallow in these poems. They are full of surprises – strange images, contradictions, observations of nature and of people, in the rhythms of her own voice – which is the most difficult thing of all to create.
– Meg Bateman
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In two languages, and with startling care, Beth Frieden maps the connections between us and our world. The threads that hold family and friendship together are woven together with the threads that hold ghosts to the land, Glasgow to Palestine, a poet to a tree. The translations carry a remarkable tension between them, showing how the languages shift in sound and sense, each casting their own light on the same theme. This is never truer than in the places where a word, an idea or a whole poem refuses translation, moving instead towards a richer recognition of difference. Though there’s grief in these poems, and icy anger too, what shines through is an abiding love—love in the sense of commitment to people and place, and commitment to seeing the world clearly.
– Josie Giles