While some poems in this collection are written in English, most are in Shaetlan, a minority tongue spoken in Shetland. To add to the linguistic texture, all the poems are translated into French.
De Luca enjoys taking her mother tongue out of its island context, freeing her poems to find a distinctively different voice, a different music. Her poems explore the natural world as well as the human heart and mind.
In his wonderful translations, Le Disez displays his talent for balancing meaning and sound and shares the same commitment to language, particularly to minority tongues.
Christine De Luca writes in English and Shaetlan (Shetlandic), her mother tongue. She lives in Edinburgh and was Edinburgh’s Makar (laureate) for 2014-2017. She has published eight poetry collections, several of which have won awards, and written two novels and several storybooks for children. Several bilingual collections of her poetry have been published (in French, Italian, Icelandic, Norwegian and English). Her French bilingual Mondes parallès (éditions fédérop) won the Prix de Poésie du Salon du Livre insulaire in 2007. Her poetry has inspired both jazz and classical compositions, most recently working with Tommy Smith and with Orkney-based composer Gemma McGregor. Another Time, Another Place (The Scottish Gallery, 2021) documented a collaboration with the Scottish artist, Victoria Crowe.
Dr Jean-Yves Le Disez is a translator and writer. He was a lecturer in English (specialising in travel studies and translation studies) at Université de Bretagne occidentale (Brest) until his retirement in 2022. He lives in Brittany.
