George Campbell Hay (1915–1984) was a Scottish

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

poet and translator, who wrote in

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

, Scots and English. He used the

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, alt ...

Deòrsa Mac Iain Dheòrsa. He also wrote poetry in French,

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

and

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

, and translated poetry from many languages into Gaelic.

Life

He was born in

Elderslie Elderslie may refer to one of the following locations: * Elderslie, Scotland Elderslie ( gd, Ach na Feàrna) is a village in the council area and historic county of Renfrewshire in west central Scotland. It chiefly serves as a commuter village, ...

Renfrewshire Renfrewshire () ( sco, Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Renfr ...

, and brought up in

Tarbert, Kintyre Tarbert ( gd, An Tairbeart, , or ''Tairbeart Loch Fìne'' to distinguish it from other places of the same name) is a village in the west of Scotland, in the Argyll and Bute council areas of Scotland, council area. It is built around East Loch Ta ...

and

Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

, where his father, the novelist John MacDougall Hay, had been born. He was educated at

Fettes College Fettes College () is a co-educational independent boarding and day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, with over two-thirds of its pupils in residence on campus. The school was originally a boarding school for boys only and became co-ed in 1983. In ...

(which he despised) and the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. He served in the British Army in North Africa, Italy and Macedonia during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, a region which featured in much of his work and then lived for a long period in Edinburgh where he worked in the

National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS) ( gd, Leabharlann Nàiseanta na h-Alba, sco, Naitional Leebrar o Scotland) is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. As one of the largest libraries in the ...

. He was a

Scottish nationalist Scottish nationalism promotes the idea that the Scottish people form a cohesive nation and Scottish national identity, national identity. Scottish nationalism began to shape from 1853 with the National Association for the Vindication of Scottish ...

. His life was difficult, with long periods of hard living, including hospitalisation and homelessness.

Work

He was a multilingual poet and published three collections between 1947 and 1952: ''Fuaran slèibh'' (1947), ''Wind on Loch Fyne'' (1948) and ''O na ceithir àirdean'' (1952). Some of his poetry was set to music by

Francis George Scott Francis George Scott (25 January 1880 – 6 November 1958) was a Scottish composer often associated with the Scottish Renaissance. Born at 6 Oliver Crescent, Hawick, Roxburghshire, he was the son of a supplier of mill-engineering parts. Educate ...

. He was a frequent contributor to ''

Gairm ''Gairm'' was a Scottish Gaelic quarterly magazine founded in 1951 by Derick Thomson, and Finlay J. MacDonald (Fionnlagh Domhnallach). Its first issue was published in Autumn 1952. MacDonald served as an editor until 1964; Thomson remained presen ...

'' magazine, and other Gaelic periodicals. The critic Kurt Wittig suggested Gaelic traits were more evident in his English than his Scots poetry. ''Mochtàr is Dùghall'', an unfinished epic about a Highland soldier, and a North African Arab in World War II was published in 1982. His ''Collected Poems and Songs'' appeared in 2000, edited by Michel Byrne, and has attracted new attention to his work.

Reviews

Burns, John (1983), ''Terrible Beauty: George Campbell Hay'', review of ''Mochtàr is Dùghall'', in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), ''

Cencrastus ''Cencrastus'' was a magazine devoted to Scottish and international literature, arts and affairs, founded after the Referendum of 1979 by students, mainly of Scottish literature at Edinburgh University, and with support from Cairns Craig, then a ...

'' No. 13, Summer 1983, pp. 45 & 46

Life

Work

Reviews

References

Further reading