Whereabouts: Notes on Being a Foreigner

WHEREABOUTS NOTES ON BEING A FOREIGNER

ALASTAIR REID

Alastair Reid

Whereabouts Notes on Being a Foreigner

White Pine Press

Paperback edition © 1990 Alastair R e i d

A h a r d c o v e r edition o f this b o o k w a s published in 1987 b y N o r t h P o i n t Press and is reprinted here b y arrangement with them.

ISBN I - 8 7 7 7 2 7 - I O - 5

C o p y r i g h t © 1963, 1 9 7 5 , 1976, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1987 b y Alastair R e i d

" D i g g i n g U p S c o t l a n d , " " H a u n t i n g s , " "Basilisks' E g g s , " and " N o t e s f r o m a Spanish V i l l a g e " first appeared in The New Yorker, "In M e m o r i a m , A m a d a " in the New York Re­ view of Books, and " O t h e r People's H o u s e s " in House & Gar­ den. " N o t e s o n B e i n g a F o r e i g n e r " is reprinted f r o m Pass­ words: Places: Poems, Preoccupations (Atlantic/Little, B r o w n , 1963). T h e p o e m s , " S p e a k i n g a F o r e i g n L a n g u a g e , " " S c o t ­ l a n d , " " T h e A c a d e m y , " " M y Father D y i n g " and " T h e M a n s e , " are reprinted f r o m Weathering: Poems and Transla­ tions ( D u t t o n , 1978).

D e s i g n b y Watershed D e s i g n

C o v e r a r t w o r k b y Elaine L a M a t t i n a

Publication o f this b o o k w a s m a d e possible, in part, b y grants f r o m the N a t i o n a l E n d o w m e n t for the A r t s and the N e w Y o r k State C o u n c i l o n the A r t s .

WHITE PINE PRESS P . O . B o x 236 Buffalo, N . Y . 14201

76 C e n t e r Street Fredonia, N . Y . 14063

forJohn Alexander Coleman and Thomas Colchie se todos fossem no mundo iguais a voces

Contents

FOREWORD

3

NOTES O N BEING A FOREIGNER

6

DIGGING UP SCOTLAND HAUNTINGS

7