The poet and folk song expert Hamish Henderson has been the subject of two books this year. His acknowledged masterpiece is the war sequence Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica, but The Flyting o’ Life and Death, written in Scots, is also particularly fine. Life speaks first in the opening verses (Hamish Henderson: Collected Poems and Songs, Curly Snake Publishing, £9.99).

THE FLYTING O’ LIFE AND DAITH

Quo life, the warld is mine.

The floo’ers and trees, they’re a’ my ain.

I am the day, and the sunshine

Quo life, the warld is mine.

Quo daith, the warld is mine.

Your lugs are deef, your een are blin

Your floo’ers maun dwine in my bitter win’

Quo daith, the warld is mine.

Quo life, the warld is mine.

I hae saft win’s, an’ healin’ rain,

Aipples I hae, an’ breid an’ wine.

Quo life, the warld is mine.

Quo daith, the warld is mine.

Whit sterts in dreid, gangs doon in pain

Bairns wintin’ breid are makin’ mane

Quo daith, the warld is mine.

Quo life, the warld is mine.

Your deidly wark, I ken it fine

There’s maet on earth for ilka wean

Quo life, the warld is mine.

Quo daith, the warld is mine.

Your silly sheaves crine in my fire

My worm keeks in your barn and byre

Quo daith, the warld is mine.

(To be continued; life has the last word tomorrow)