Taigh Tasgaidh Chill Donnain

Mìle fàilt’ air an aitribh ’s air gach neach a chuir suas i,
Bidh i againn mar dhìleab bhios prìseil is luachmhor:

Chì sinn dealbhan ar càirdean a tha cnàmh anns na h-uaighean,

Chì sinn saothair an làmhan dearbhadh ànraidh is cruaidh-chàis.

Chì sinn innean na ceàrdaich far ’n d’rinneadh tàthadh ’s faobhar,

Chì sinn geamhlag a’ chlachair ’s òrd bàrraidh an t-saoir ann;

Chì sinn làmh-cheàird a’ ghreusaich’ (’s gur brèagha ’chuid shaothrach)

Agus meuran an tàilleir a’ cur na snàthaid troimhn aodach.

Tha iomadh cuimhneachan àraid san àit’ seo fo’r còmhair
A’ toirt eachdraidh ar sinnsear anns na tìmean air fògairt:

Tha ’n crann treabhaidh ’s a’ chliath ann, an criathar ’s an t-sùiste,
’S tha acfhainn nan steud ann, bann-bràghad agus cruipean.

 

Tha ’chuidheall-shnìomha ’s an càrd ann, agus brà-bhleith an eòrna,

Tha ’n spaid ’s an gràp’ ann, ’s tha ràcan an fheòir ann;

Tha casan an fhéidh ann rinn ioma ceum feadh na mòintich

’S gunna dùbailt’ an t-sealgair bu tric shealbhaich a bheòshlaint’.

.
Dòmhnall Aonghais Bhàin

Photo by

Thomas Knauer

The Kildonan Museum

A thousand welcomes to the building and to all who have created it,
We will have it as a legacy that’s precious and invaluable:

We’ll see pictures of our kinsfolk who’re decaying in their graves,

We’ll see the produce of their hands as proof of hard times and adversity.

We’ll see the anvil from the smithy where joints and edges were made, We’ll see the mason’s crowbar and the joiner’s hammer for nailing;

We’ll see the shoemaker’s handiwork (and lovely is his product)

While the thimble of the tailor put the needle through the clothes.

Many rare mementos in this place in front of us

Display the story of our ancestors in times now long gone by:

There’s the plough and the harrow here, the riddle and the flail,
And there is horses’ harness here, a collar-band and crupper.

The spinning-wheel and card are here, and the quern for grinding barley,
The spade and the graip are here, and the rake for the hay;

The antlers of the deer are here which made many mountain paths

And the hunter’s double-barrelled gun which often furnished his livelihood.

 

Donald MacDonald

Donald MacDonald (Domhnall Aonghais Bhain) from South Lochboisdale penned these verses in Gaelic after looking round the museum.

From the 2000 book Smuaintean fo Eiseabhal: THOUGHTS UNDER EISEAVAL.

 

Edited and translated by Ronald Black.  Birlin Books Limited, Edinburgh. £7.99 ISBN 1 84158 108 9