Brandit

The names for far we bade, pauchled,
syne they sealed oor mous wi saicrets,
made us sweer an, throu oor ain obedience,
thirlt us tae their schemes.

     Culloden:
          … baith sides, clans, brither against brither,
     some say, for honour tae win oot, itherwise,
     in curns tae dae the biddin o their betters 
     five hunner miles awa, thae same slee lairds, 
     vrastling for bleedless vantage, 
     that wad yet see bleed spult, 
     though nane o’t their ain.

The claith we wore, strippet awa;
it wis an ill-deed, they said, against the king,
oor distant cousin, a prisoner himsel o finery
and high position; Gweed, they telt us,
wis wi him nae us; boo doon, kneel, they said,
g’wa hame an hairst yir scrimpit, fruitless craps.

     Glencoe:
     …hame o black treachery; for want of kneein 
     tae the lairds, for ae token obesiance,
     deceit and death fell on the sakeless 
     an them ower thraan tae stoop.

Oor verra tongues wi oor wirds on them, cut oot
so we wad be dumm’t and could nae mair say
fit wis in oor hearts nor scry the names
oor fitstaps screivit in the despair o oor retreatin.

     Bannockburn:
     …airmies in a field o bleed, a nation ance-mair risen,
     its doun-haudin, the vexatious channer o the fecht,
     an the line stood, for ae time unbroken, 
     nae maitter the intent tae haimmer dissent
     intae the strewn grun lik a roosty thowl.

Oor fendin wis twinet intae gallus sweirtness,
an they cowe’t us wi history till we were laid low
by feud and brangle, like mean and vicious feels,
like savages; for aa that, we pit a different honour on’t,
wi grun aneth to stan on or lay oorsels in, livin or deid.

     And noo the libel steals the wird.
     oor names are tongue-tackit, 
     nivver tae be said nor seen wi’oot consent 
     an, though the reed stain is bleed nae mair 
     an but a scraal o ink ower a legal page, 
     consent isna asket – nae fae the yird itsel, 
     nor fae the fowk upon’t, but only fae them
     faa’s lairdship compels oor silence yet.

© BH, 2017/2019

---

A long time after the NTS branding controversy in which they pursued a clothing manufacturer who had been making Glencoe outdoor wear for years to stop them using the name ‘Glencoe’, I wrote this. It needed to be in Scots, I thought.

My sentiments on the English version are the same.. This is colonialism, a colonial attitude, never mind the marketing context. It’s still about imposing boundaries round us and daring us to cross them. Because theirs is the power and glory - not ours.

You’ll note this text continues to change over time. It’s something that happens with poems. They are rewritten. Like I said, rather like our history.

Here's Branded.