An Comunn Gàidhealach Publications > Gaidheal > Volumes 58--62(part), January, 1963--March 1967

were speaking a completely different language
from German.
Of course, I said it is Hungarian that they
are speaking and have the notices and signs in
it.
Two men in Austrian uniform, one with a
book the other with a rubber stamp, came
along the train corridor from compartment to
compartment. The man with the stamp
thumped my passport with it and left in
German the statement that I left Austria on
that date. I agreed with the man with the
book that I had nothing ta declare and they
passed on.
Three minutes later two other men, in
different but not dissimilar uniforms, came
along from compartment to compartment
going through the same formality. But they
weren’t speaking German together. I took it
to be that they were chatting in Hungarian. I
was right. My well-stamped passport showed
as soon as the Hungarian had put his stamp on
it, that I had entered Hungary at Hegyshalom.
As completely un-German as any place-name
could be.
Looking out the carriage-window I saw the
board giving the name of the station—it read
“Hegyshalom.” A man of about forty passed
the window with a newspaper in his arm, it
was Hungarian. A housewife with a few
messages in her shopping basket passed. I
noticed the coloured wrapper round the con¬
tinental sausage was printed in Hungarian. It
bore in on me that, in this modem mass-
produced world the only treasure that is left
to a nation is its language. No matter how
passionately Hungarian these milling crowds
wore, tjhie only distinguishing mark they
possessed to show that they were not Germans
on the other side of the nearby Border was
not their regime but nothing more than their
language and its songs and its literature.
I think of Scotland to-day and realise! that
all we have to show as a nation is as much
as the Hungarians, their language and its own
ethos. All new towns are the same brick-
planned impersonal creations. To-day all
nations wear and eat thel same machine-made
products. A television set, a gramophone or
wireless is the same the world over. All that
a nation hasi left is its language, without its
language it has lost its soul. Hungary would
have lost its very essence if it lost its Hun¬
garian language and all that goes with it.
In the same way we Scots will lose our very
soul if wc don’t join the work of saving our
own Gaelic language* from the extinction that
threatens it. The only way to know a language
is to learn it, to enjoy its songs and its
literature.
Leasain Ghaidhlig, 1964-65
Le Iain A. MacDhomhnaill
A’ CHEUD LEASAN
Tha Iain agus Mairi a’ fuireach ann am
Bade an Duin. Tha an taigh aig Iain aig an
rathad agus tha croit aig Iain faisg air an
taigh. Tha achadh mor faisg air an taigh
agus tha achadh eile faisg air a’ chladach.
Tha crodh aig Iain anns an achadh aig an
taigh agus tha caoraich aig Iain anns an
achadh eile. Tha each aig Iain cuideachd
agus tha an t-each aig an abhainn. Tha bata
aig Iain cuideachd agus tha am bata aig a’
chladach.
Tha Iain gle thrang ag obair air a’ chroit
a h-uile latha ach tha Mairi trang ag obair
aig an taigh a h-uile latha.
Tha gille agus caileag aig Iain agus Mairi.
Tha an gille deich bliadhna agus tha a’
chaileag ochd. Tha an gille agus a’ chaileag
a’ dol do’n sgoil a h-uile latha bho Dhi-Luain
gu Di-Haoine ach chaneil iad a’ dol do’n
sgoil Di-Sathurna agus chaneil iad a’ dol do’n
sgoil Di-D6mhnaich.
Cdmhradh
Iain—De an uair a tha e?
Mairi—Tha e ceithir uairean.
Iain—A bheil an tea deiseil?
Mairi—Chaneil fhathast.
Iain—C’ait’ a bheil an t-each?
Mairi—Chunnaic mi e anns an achadh aig a’
chladach.
Iain—Co bha aig an abhainn?
Mairi—Bha Seumas.
Iain—A bheil e ag iasgach?
Mairi—Chaneil.
AN DARA LEASAN
Tha croit mhor aig Iain. Tha Iain ’na
chroitear agus tha e gle thrang ag obair air
a’ chroit agus anns a’ mhonadh. Tha caoraich
aig Iain anns a’ mhonadh. Tha ceud caora
aig Iain anns a’ mhonadh agus tha da bho
agus each aige cuideachd. Is toigh le Iain a
bhith ag obair air a’ chroit ach is toigh leis
a bhith dol do’n mhonadh cuideachd. Tha e
dol do’n mhonadh trie an uair a tha an side
math. An uair a tha Iain ag obair air a’
chroit no an uair a tha e ag obair anns a’
mhonadh agus an uair a tha a’ chlann anns
an sgoil tha Mairi trang ag obair anns an
taigh. Is toigh le Mairi a bhith ag obair
anns an taigh ach is toigh leatha a bhith ag
obair air a’ chroit an uair a tha an side
math. Tha a’ chlann anns an sgoil a h-uile
latha bho Dhf-Luain gu Di-Haoine. Is toigh