A Little Bit Of Culture...

A little bit of Culture... Poetry from soc.culture.irish

Dánta na hÉireann (poems composed in Irish)

Posted by K E Dennis
on: 11 December 1998

Just one more poem on the bogland theme <tho there are many more, she hints hopefully>....

By now, I reckon Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill needs no introduction.

Amhrán An Fhir Óig Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill	*Selected Poems: Rogha Dánta* *Dublin:* *Raven Arts Press,1986*
	Young Man's Song - translation by Michael Hartnett

Mo dhá láimh
ar do chíocha,
do dhá nead éin,
do leaba fhlocais.
Sníonn do chneas
chomh bán le sneachta,
chomh geal le haol,
chomh mín leis an táth lín.

Searraim mo ghuaille
nuair a bhraithim
do theanga i mo phluic,
do bhéal faoi m'fhiacla.
Osclaíonn trínse
faoi shoc mo chéachta.
Nuair a shroisim bun na claise
raidim.

Mise an púca
a thagann san oíche,
an robálaí nead,
am domhaintreabhadóir.
Loitim an luachair mórthimpeall.
Tugaim do mhianach portaigh
chun míntíreachais.

Young Man's Song
trans., Michael Hartnett

My two hands
on your breast
your two bird's nests
your flock bed
your skin flows --
as white as snow
as bright as lime
as fine as a bunch of flax.

I stretch my shoulder
when I feel
your tongue in my cheek
your mouth beneath my teeth.
A trench is opened up
by the sock of my plough.
When I reach the furrow's end
I buck.

I am the púca
who comes in the night -
nest-robber
world-plougher:
I destroy the surrounding reeds,
I reclaim your bogland.

--- The End ---