Gàidhlig / English
Laparsaich

Laparsaich

Posted by Kate on Thursday 17th November
It’s often I find myself thinking how lovely it would be to be flying from wave to wave as do birds on the sea. This movement is known as laparsaich. This phrase was collected in Swainbost, Ness, Lewis. Aonghas Caimbeul, the bard from Swainbost, used it in his poem, Am Fear Nach Ainmich Mi:

Ri solus na gealaich bhuidhe…
’S nuair a chluicheas tu do phìob
Ruighlidh iad Gille Calum;
Filleag an còta drannaig
Laparsaich na speirean sgiabt’,
Clab am bas le sgalan-sgriach
Às an ciall cur nan caran.
 
In the light of a yellow moon…
And when you play your pipes
They would reel to Gille Calum;
The folds of the coat of hide
The flitting of the frightened sparrowhawks
The gaping mouth of death shrill and screeching
Madly sending them tumbling.
 
It is certainly a powerful image. This poem is available to look at in more depth in the corpus.
 
We will take a look at a proverb from Lochaber:
 
“Théid am mianan o dhuine gu duine mar a théid an t-eunan bho dhoire gu doire.”
 
“The yawn flits from person to person as do the birds from grove to grove.”
 
Indeed, we are all aware of how easily a yawn is passed between people!
 
It seems there is not much else that moves so nimbly as a bird on the contentious waves. If you find a suitably flat stone to toss over the waves, you may call this stone a sliuchadan. On the other hand, sonc describes how rapidly something sinks in the water, and those who were present in that moment would shout, “sonc!”
 
If you are familiar with this week’s phrase, or if you have any other words for the movements of animals through water, please leave your comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.
 
 
Your comment has been submitted for moderation
There are no comments for this post