“Blateness’’
efter Li Qingzhao
She git aff the shoggie-shoo
An raxt her haunds, gey wabbit,
Aa drookit as a floo’er
Unner licht an weet claes.
When she hearkent a body a-comin
She tint her brooch an stockin —skirtit
Awa
Ahint the fore-door frame,
Her blate neb forbye a bab o plums
Scots version by Paul Magrati
Shyness.
She got off the swing and stretched her hands, fairly dazed and drenched as a flower under light and wet clothes. When she heard someone coming, she lost her brooch and her stocking —vanished behind the frame of the main door, her shy nose by a bunch of plums.
Paraphrased in English by Paul Magrati