Category: Riverton

“Sraidean Na Roinn-Eorpa” by Runrig

Chuir mi mo chul ri Lunnainn
An samhradh air m’aodann
‘S mi air sraidean mor na Roinn-Eorpa
‘S mi le mo run, le m’anam, mo bhratach
Mo ghrian mo ghealach ur
‘S sheas mi’s na aiteachan a sheas m’athair
‘S ioma cogadh a tha ann airson saorsa
Da fhicead bliadhna’s an dileab air fhagail
Briaran do linn’s do sheorsa

Baile beag anns a’ Ghearmailt
Gruagach cho boidheach
Le suilean lan sonas is bron
Thuirt i “am bheil fhios agaibh fhein, an t-sochair
‘tha agaibh Tha eallach eachraidh air mo ghuaillan cho trom”
Chrath sinn lamhan, ‘s dh’fhalbh I a’seinn
An dan tha dcmhainn, ‘s gach anam de dhaoine
Dh’fhag mi i le blas beag de mo dhuthaich
Dh’fhag i mi leis a chompanas ur

Tha na brataich a’snamh
An cuan de dhathan
Do chanan binn an cluas na Roinn-Eorpa
Tha na sraidean beo le cainnt’s togair
Sraidean am Babel ur
‘S thusa mo run, tha cothrom mad choinneamh
Tha do chliu air ‘dhol tarsainn an cuan
Thusa tha meanbh, bi ladir, bi alainn
Taisbean do chanan, bi buan

–oOo–

TRANSLATION

“European Continent”

I have put London behind me
The summer is on my face
And I am on the big streets of Europe
With my love, my flag
My sun, and my new moon
I stood in the places where my father had stood
Many are the wars of freedom
Forty years and the legacy is still with me
The words of his kind and generation

A small town in Germany
A beautiful young girl
Her eyes full of sorrow and joy
She said “Are you aware of the privilege you enjoy
The burden of history lies heavy on my shoulders”
We shook hands, and she went on her way singing
The song that is deep in the soul of all people
I left her with a small part of my country
She left me with the fellowship of a new age

The flags are swimming
In a sea of colour
My language melodious in the ear of Europe
The streets are alive with conversation and purpose
Possibilities for a new Babel
And you my love have opportunity before you
Your renown has crossed the ocean
You that are small, be strong, be beautiful
Reveal your great language, be everlasting

I can see echoes of African landscapes in this polished stone from Riverton…

Copper sun sinking low
Scatterlings and fugitives
Hooded eyes and weary brows
Seek refuge in the night

They are the scatterlings of Africa
Each uprooted one
On the road to Phelamanga
Where the world began

I love the scatterlings of Africa
Each and every one
In their hearts a burning hunger
Beneath the copper sun

Ancient bones from Olduvai
Echoes of the very first cry
“Who made me, here and why? 
Beneath the copper sun”

African ideas, African ideas
Make the future clear, make the future clear

And we are scatterlings of Africa
Both you and I 
We run the road to Phelamanga
Beneath the copper skies

And we are scatterlings of Africa
On a journey to the stars
Far below we leave forever
Dreams of what we were

“Scatterlings of Africa” by Johnny Clegg and Juluka

As an adolescent in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs, Johnny Clegg encountered the music and dances of the city’s Zulu migrant workers. He learned the Zulu language, the maskandi guitar and the dance styles of the migrants. Clegg’s involvement with black musicians often led to arrests for trespassing on government property and for contravening the Group Areas Act. He was first arrested at the age of 15 for violating apartheid-era laws in South Africa banning people of different races from congregating together after curfew hours. He went on to record and perform with his bands Juluka and Savuka. Once, Savuka drew such a large crowd for a concert in Lyon, France, that Michael Jackson cancelled a concert there, complaining that Clegg and his group had stolen all his fans. “Scatterlings of Africa” was Clegg’s most popular international hit. I used to show the video of it in a lecture to raise questions for New Zealand about the difficulty of understanding an African setting and the meaning of an African dance, and the type of research methods needed to overcome those difficulties.

A polished andesite stone, from a Riverton beach… Of this earth but other-worldly…

Runrig is a recently-retired Scottish Celtic rock band formed on the Isle of Skye in 1973. Their name is taken from a historic furrow-and-ridge system of farming that was used for hundreds of years in the Highlands and Islands. The land was divided into towns or townships, comprising an area of cultivable “in-bye” land and a larger area of pasture and rough grazing. The in-bye was divided into long narrow strips – “rigs” – which were periodically reassigned among the tenants of the township so that no individual had continuous use of the best land. The music of Runrig is often described as a blend of folk and rock music, with lyrics often focusing upon the locations, history, politics, and people that are unique to Scotland. They are one of the few rock bands whose songs have often included Gaelic. They disbanded in 2018.

Early Runrig. Source: https://www.allmusic.com/album/all-the-best-mw0002480176

Traditional Scottish run-rig system of farming. Source: http://theindepthgenealogist.com/lowland-clearances

Google Maps view of old run-rig strips, Port of Ness, Isle of Lewis. Source: https://www.google.co.nz/maps/@58.4943964,-6.2236151,257m/data=!3m1!1e3

Remains of old run-rig strips, Isle of Skye. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run_rig#/media/File:Runrigs_-_geograph.org.uk_-_308174.jpg

The end of Runrig’s final concert, August 2018. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runrig#/media/File:Runrig,_farewell_at_Stirling,_18-08-2018.jpg

On sun soaked seas
Baiting the hand lines
Neoscan at the oars
Turning the bows into the Morea wake
For the thrill of it all
Across the middle of the bay
A line of faces in the waiting hour

And I could see
The other world was here
Can you hear it now?
We’re just on the brink

Returning homewards
Together on
Alone

O mollaidh sinn
An gaol ‘s an gras
A thug dhuinn bith
Cho umhail fo ghrein
‘S i dealradh sios
Air reultan cein

It was all there waiting
Just as we reached the door
Just as we reached the door

“Day in a Boat” by Runrig

NASA astronaut Laurel Clark, who died in the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003, came across Runrig’s music while stationed at Holy Loch on the Firth of Clyde. While she was in space, a Runrig song called “Running to the Light” from the Album “The Stamping Ground” was played as a wake-up call. She told Mission Control in Houston that it reminded her of her husband Jon and her time in Scotland. Columbia broke up as it returned to Earth, killing Clark and her six fellow astronauts on board. The two Runrig CDs she had brought with her into space, “The Stamping Ground” and “The Cutter and the Clan”, were found afterwards in different parts of the wreckage and later presented to the band by her husband and son.

This stone reminds me of the rough tough skin of the crocodile.

This is a song by the Australian group Yothu Yindi , most well-known for “Treaty”. Their influential lead singer Mandawuy Yunupingu sadly died in 2013. I used to play Treaty in a lecture on using research to understand other cultures than our own. “Maralitja” is a creative blend of western and aboriginal music styles. I have not yet found a translation of the lyrics, but the saltwater crocodile was the totem of Mandawuy Yunupingu. A comment on the significance of the Album from which the song comes, “Tribal Voice”, states that the song “establishes the Gumatj clan’s descent from Maralitja, the Saltwater Crocodile ancestor”. 

“Maralitja”(Crocodile Man)

Nhina ngilimurru yolngu maralitja wanga lamiwuy
Gudurru mulka nawayngu bulupinydjin manggurrtji biliwili
Marrkapmirri wanga dhuwala ngilimurrunggu
Nhungu ga ngarraku
Ngilimurru nhina wangganyngurana dhiyala bayma
Maranydja Yothu Yindina

Maralitja galimindirrk
Gokarrngu lamiwuy

Ga ngunhi ngandi wulma murryun yambatthun djarimi
Ga murryun wngangupann ngatha lakarama miltjuntjun
Dhakay ngatha ngunhinydja lami warray dhiyakuwuy nglimurrunggu
Ngilimurr wangganyngurana dhiyalana bayma
miyaman manikay ga bunggul giritjirri

Maralitja galimindirrk
Gokarrngu lamiwuy
Way maralitja dhukulul dharyuna ngunbungunbu

Nhina ngilimurru yolngu maralitja wanga lamiwuy
Gudurru mulka nawayngu bulupinydjin manggurrtji biliwili
Marrkapmirri wanga dhuwala ngilimurrunggu
Nhungu ga ngarraku
Ngilimurru nhina wangganyngurana dhiyala bayma
Maranydja Yothu Yindina

Maralitja galimindirrk
Gokarrngu lamiwuy

Four stones from a Riverton beach, picked up and polished by my wife, in the second batch of stones she tumble polished.

“There is all this untouched beauty, The light, the dark both running through me…”

Changes come, turn my world around
Changes come, turn my world around

I have my father’s hand
I have my mother’s tongue
I look for redemption in everyone

I wanna wear your ring
I have a song to sing
It ain’t over babe
In fact it’s just begun

Changes come, turn my world around
Changes come, bring the whole thing down

I wanna have our baby
Some days I think that maybe
This old world’s too fucked up
For any firstborn son

There is all this untouched beauty
The light, the dark
Both running through me
Is there still redemption for anyone?

Changes come, turn my world around
Changes come, bring the whole thing down…

“Changes Come” by Over the Rhine

One of the Riverton stones from my wife’s first batch of tumble polished stones. It has flashes of blue residing deep within…

Go find a jukebox
And see what a quarter will do
I don’t want to talk
I just want to go back to blue

Feeds me when I’m hungry
And quenches my thirst
Loves me when I’m lonely
And thinks of me first

Blue is the colour of night
When the red sun disappears from the sky
Raven, feathers shiny and black
A touch of blue glistening down her back

We don’t talk about heaven
And we don’t talk about hell
We’ve come to depend on
One another so damn well

So go to confession
Whatever gets you through
You can count your blessings
I’ll just count on blue

Blue is the colour of night
When the red sun disappears from the sky
Raven feathers shiny and black
A touch of blue glistening down her back
Blue