In 1982 Derick Thomson began to feature, in the quarterly review Gairm of which he was editor, Whyte’s translations into Gaelic of poets such as Cavafy, Ritsos, Ujević, Mörike, Akhmatova and Tsvetaeva.
Whyte’s first poetry collection, Uirsgeul/Myth, in Gaelic with the author’s own English translations, was joint winner of a Saltire Award when published by Gairm in 1991. ‘We may suspect substantial original work from his pen’, announced Derick Thomson, in the second edition of his Introduction to Gaelic Poetry.
An Tràth Duilich (Callander, Diehard Press 2002) is a Gaelic-only collection, with a pivotal sequence about an urban adolescence troubled by religious and sexual guilt, and an incomplete sequence focusing on the Fontana Maggiore constructed by sculptors Nicola and Giovanni Pisano in Perugia, Italy in 1277-1278. Dealbh Athar (Dublin, Coiscéim 2009) is a forthright treatment of the poet’s abuse by his father, its consequences, and the family circumstances which surrounded it, with translations into Irish by Gréagóir Ó Dúill.
Ronald Black hailed the title sequence in Whyte’s fourth collection Bho Leabhar-Latha Maria Malibran / From the Diary of Maria Malibran (Stornoway, Acair 2009) as ‘hugely successful’ and ‘a huge step forward for Gaelic poetry’. In it the celebrated opera singer (1808-1836), in a country retreat not far from Paris, reflects on her life, her career and her relationship with her father, also an opera star. A combative epilogue affirms the importance of not confining poetry in Gaelic to themes and topics directly related to the society and history of those who speak the language.
Whyte’s fifth collection, in Gaelic only, An Daolagh Shìonach (The Chinese Beetle) (Glasgow, Clò Gille Moire 2013), brings together uncollected poems for the years from 1987 to 1999, and a rich crop of new work from 2004 to 2007.
Since 2006, Whyte has published regularly in the yearly anthology New Scottish Writing (Glasgow, Association for Scottish Literary Studies) a series of longer poems with English translations by Niall O’Gallagher which have met with considerable acclaim. Tom Adair wrote in The Scotsman of ‘Ceum air cheum’ / ‘Step by step’ that ‘This poem alone makes the book worth twice the asking price’, while Colin Waters in The Scottish Review of Books found Whyte’s treatment of his troubled relationship with older poet Sorley MacLean (Somhaire MacGill-Eain (1911-1996)) a ‘most memorable contribution... Powerful emotion coupled with the skill to pull off its depiction.’
Whyte’s first poetry collection, Uirsgeul/Myth, in Gaelic with the author’s own English translations, was joint winner of a Saltire Award when published by Gairm in 1991. ‘We may suspect substantial original work from his pen’, announced Derick Thomson, in the second edition of his Introduction to Gaelic Poetry.
An Tràth Duilich (Callander, Diehard Press 2002) is a Gaelic-only collection, with a pivotal sequence about an urban adolescence troubled by religious and sexual guilt, and an incomplete sequence focusing on the Fontana Maggiore constructed by sculptors Nicola and Giovanni Pisano in Perugia, Italy in 1277-1278. Dealbh Athar (Dublin, Coiscéim 2009) is a forthright treatment of the poet’s abuse by his father, its consequences, and the family circumstances which surrounded it, with translations into Irish by Gréagóir Ó Dúill.
Ronald Black hailed the title sequence in Whyte’s fourth collection Bho Leabhar-Latha Maria Malibran / From the Diary of Maria Malibran (Stornoway, Acair 2009) as ‘hugely successful’ and ‘a huge step forward for Gaelic poetry’. In it the celebrated opera singer (1808-1836), in a country retreat not far from Paris, reflects on her life, her career and her relationship with her father, also an opera star. A combative epilogue affirms the importance of not confining poetry in Gaelic to themes and topics directly related to the society and history of those who speak the language.
Whyte’s fifth collection, in Gaelic only, An Daolagh Shìonach (The Chinese Beetle) (Glasgow, Clò Gille Moire 2013), brings together uncollected poems for the years from 1987 to 1999, and a rich crop of new work from 2004 to 2007.
Since 2006, Whyte has published regularly in the yearly anthology New Scottish Writing (Glasgow, Association for Scottish Literary Studies) a series of longer poems with English translations by Niall O’Gallagher which have met with considerable acclaim. Tom Adair wrote in The Scotsman of ‘Ceum air cheum’ / ‘Step by step’ that ‘This poem alone makes the book worth twice the asking price’, while Colin Waters in The Scottish Review of Books found Whyte’s treatment of his troubled relationship with older poet Sorley MacLean (Somhaire MacGill-Eain (1911-1996)) a ‘most memorable contribution... Powerful emotion coupled with the skill to pull off its depiction.’
Photo: Jitka Hanušová
