audio CDs Scots Language Society
£11

    : The Mossflow

 Brian Holton

(onie track ablo wi blae hyperlink haes an online swatch cleikit til it) 

sscd 135

 

 

track details

 

Passages in Scots from the classic Chinese novel Shuihu Zhuan

translated by

Brian Holton

 

1 Introduction by Brian Holton

Whit’s this Shuihu Zhuan? An whit’s Mossflow got tae dae wi’t? 11:55

2 Chapter 3
Shi Jin the Nine-Gaired Dragon leaves hame tae try the gangrel life. 3:18

3 On the road he faas in wi Lu Da, Controller o Martial Leir i the Fift Circuit Airmy. 4:28

4 They tak a dram wi General Toober-the-Tiger, an hear the soun o greitin an girnin. 4:27

5 Emerant Lilly an her auid faither tell their waesome tale, an Lu Da gets fell roused. 8:50

6 Lu Da gangs doun tae the flesher’s an sorts out the Wast Mairch Crusher. 7:15

7 Lu Da gets named a fautor an is pit tae the horn. 3:16

8 Lu Da, fugied tae airts unkent, faas in wi a kent face i the burgh-toun. 1:19

9 Lu Da leivin. 2:36

Total playing time on this CD 47:24

 

Mossflow is a version in Scots of the classic Chinese novel Shuihu Zhuan. Set in the 13th century, in the closing years of the Song dynasty, it tells a series of tales of hardmen and heroes, boozers and brawlers who rollick their way through an age of corruption, civil strife, uproar and anarchy.

One of the best-loved books in a culture which has written more books than any other on the planet, Shuihu Zhuan has a troubling and perennial question at its heart: what do good men do about bad government?

Brian Holton is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Here he reads part of his ongoing version of Mossflow. He fell in love with the book many years ago as a student at Edinburgh, and began the translation in the early ’80s. It has continued on and off ever since, as a labour of love. One day he may even finish it . . .