Throwe the Keekin-Gless an Fit Ailice Funn There

<p>For a general introduction to the literary and cultural background of the present translation and to the North-East Scots dialect itself see the introduction to my translation of Carroll's previous book <em>Ailce's Anters in Ferlielann</em>. As there I have used a conservative form of the dialect checking the words and pronunciations against classic literary texts (and this time also against the earlier translation to ensure consistency). As there too I have endeavoured to find a specific equivalent for every joke pun allusion and other trick of style in the original. The metrical and rhyme patterns of the poems are maintained: as always in poetic translations of any kind this procedure necessitates some departures from the original wording; and in one instance namely the sequence of <em>thirteen</em> rhymes on toe in the closing section of the White Knight's song I have assumed the licence to treat Carroll's lines with complete freedom. Puns and other forms of word-play appear at corresponding places to those in the source book: this too necessarily entails departure from the original wording as in the Midgie's (Carroll's Gnat's) Somethin about a haverin aiver ye ken to replace Something about 'horse' and 'hoarse' you know. Culture-bound allusions are replaced with ones more readily associated with the expected new readership (his Anglo-Saxon messengers with their Anglo-Saxon attitudes becoming Pictish messengers with Pictish poseitions); and a clearly-differentiated speech-form namely the Clydeside basilect is again used for characters whose dialogue in the original suggests non-standard English (the Frog in Chapter IX and the Wasp in the lost episode). --Derrick McClure</p><p><br></p>