Parallel Worlds

About the Book: 

True poems steer up athin dat inner space, an touch da hert-holl at we tocht intact: dat blissit place we geeng tae on wir ain. Dey oppen hoidy-holls we'd bolted fast.

Since her first collection of work, the prize winning Voes & Sounds, Christine De Luca has been bringing the beauty of the Shetlandic language to her readers, wrapped in the wonder of her words. This does not happen by an act of translation; indeed the language and dialect itself become her self-expression. She notes that 'the identity with most emotional reality for me is the Shetland one. Identities stack like Russian dolls and peeling off the layers to get to the heart is essential'.

De Luca invites you to accompany her as she explores the parallels that run through her life. Contentment and happiness are set against a burning desire to protect a way of life, and the past is celebrated at the same time as it is updated.

Parallel Worlds includes a brief overview of the language, and the poems are footnoted with origins as well as translations of important terms into English. Whether you're well versed in Shetlandic or not, follow De Luca as she shows that her language is 'ee wye o spaekin,/ o makkin sense o things, we learn ta fit/ whit we say ta whit's lippened'.

Reviews: 

The volume strikes me as sustaining real quality of excitement and as being punctuated by fresh thematic ventures and pulses of energy... A colourful and compelling collection, enriching in the two-way glimpses it gives us into contrasted (and often 'parallel') cultures - and into the human heart. - STEWART CONN

About the Author:

CHRISTINE DE LUCA was born and brought up in Shetland, spending her formative years in Waas (Walls) on the west side of the mainland. She now lives in the Edinburgh area. In 1996 she won the Shetland Literary Prize with her first poetry collection Voes & Sounds and again in 1999, Wast Wi Da Valkyries. A third collection, Plain Song, was launched in Shetland and Edinburgh in 2002. It is accompanied by a CD of the poems, read by the author. Her poems have been translated into Italian, Swedish, Polish, Danish, Welsh and English. She has read at over 130 events including Book and Poetry Festivals in: Edinburgh, St Andrews, Inverness, Wigtown, Shetland and in Helsinki.