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Rugadh am bàrd Deòrsa mac Iain Deòrsa ann an naoi ceud deug is còig-deug (1915). Thogadh e ann an Tairbeart Loch Fìne. Dh’ionnsaich e Gàidhlig an sin.

            Nuair a bha e deich bliadhna a dh’aois, chaidh e gu Colaiste John Watson agus an uair sin Colaiste Fettes ann an Dùn Èideann. Anns na làithean-saora aige, bha e ag obair air eathar-iasgaich air Loch Fìne. Bha e a’ bruidhinn Gàidhlig ris na h-iasgairean. Bha e math air cànanan ionnsachadh.

            Ann an naoi ceud deug, trithead ’s a ceithir (1934) chaidh Deòrsa don oilthigh ann an Oxford. Ach chaidh a phoilitigs na bu nàiseantaiche. Sgrìobh e gun robh e coma ged a bheireadh na Natsaich buaidh air Sasainn – fhad ’s a bhiodh Alba saor. Air sgàth sin, cha bhi a h-uile duine a tha measail air bàrdachd Ghàidhlig a’ comharrachadh a bheatha.

            Cha robh e deònach a dhol a-steach don arm. Airson seachd mìosan bha e am falach ann am monaidhean Earra-Ghàidheal. Mu dheireadh thall, fhuair na h-ùghdarrasan grèim air. Chaidh a chur don phrìosan airson greis. Ghabh e ri a ghairm bhon arm an dèidh sin air sgàth a mhàthar.

            Chuir e seachad an còrr dhen chogadh mar chlàrc anns an Royal Army Ordnance Corps. Bha e ann an Algeria agus Tunisia. An uair sin bha e san arm anns an Eadailt, ag obair mar eadar-theangair. Fhad ’s a bha e anns na dùthchannan sin, dh’ionnsaich e mu chultar nan Arabach agus nan Eadailteach. Agus sgrìobh e tòrr bàrdachd.

            Aig deireadh a’ chogaidh, chaidh Deòrsa a chur don Ghrèig. Bha e an sàs ann an ùpraid phoilitigeach an sin. Dh’fhuiling e tinneas-inntinn an dèidh sin agus fhuair e peinnsean bhon arm. Cha do dh’obraich e làn-thìde a-rithist.

            Chuir e bliadhnaichean seachad ann an ospadal airson tinneas-inntinn ann an Dùn Èideann. Ged a thill e airson greis don Tairbeart, cha deach gu math leis an sin. Cha robh an t-àite mar a bha. Chaochail Deòrsa ann an Dùn Èideann ann an naoi ceud deug, ochdad ’s a ceithir (1984). Ach tha a bhàrdachd – ann an Gàidhlig, Albais is Beurla – beò fhathast. ’S fhiach a leughadh.

The poet George Campbell Hay was born in 1915. He was brought up in Tarbert Loch Fyne. He learned Gaelic there.

        When he was ten years old, he went to John Watson’s Colllege and then Fettes College in Edinburgh. In his holidays, he was working on a fishing boat on Loch Fyne. He was speaking Gaelic to the fishermen. He was good at learning languages.

        In 1934, George went to university in Oxford. But his politics become more nationalistic. He wrote that he was indifferent to England being defeated by the Nazis – as long as Scotland remained free. Because of that, not everybody who is keen on Gaelic poetry will be commemorating his life.

        He wasn’t willing to go into the army. For seven months, he was hiding in the hills of Argyll. Eventually, the authorities captured him. He was sent to prison for a while. He accepted the call-up from the army after that because of his mother.

        He spent the rest of the war as a clerk in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. He was in Algeria and Tunisia. Then he was in the army in Italy, working as a translator. While he was in those countries, he learned about the culture of the Arabs and the Italians. And he wrote a lot of poetry.

        At the end of the war, George was sent to Greece. He was involved in a political riot there. He suffered mental illness after that and obtained a pension from the army. He never worked full-time again.

        He spent years in a mental hospital in Edinburgh. Although he returned for a spell to Tarbert, things didn’t work out for him there. The place wasn’t as it had been. George died in Edinburgh in 1984. But his poetry – in Gaelic, Scots and English – lives on. It’s worth reading.