A Little Bit Of Culture...

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

Dánta na hÉireann (poems composed in Irish)

Posted by Gearóid Mac Cuinneagáin
on: 20 May 2001

I've never been lucky enough to meet Nuala, but I did get to see her featured in a TG4 programme last week. Anyway, here's another poem of hers for my sins:

Manach Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill	*Selected Poems: Rogha Dánta* *Dublin:* *Raven Arts Press,1986*
	Monk - translation by Michael Hartnett

Tusa Naomh Antaine,
nó Céile Dé,
suite ar charraig
ar Sceilg Mhichil.
Ciúnaíonn fíor mo chroise
an fharraige is an ghaoth.
Tá do lámha lán d'fhuiseoga.

Mise Temptation,
aithníonn tú mé.
Uaireanta is Éabha,
uaireanta is nathair nimhe mé.
Éirim chun táigne
i lár an lae ghléigil ghlé.
Soilsím mar ghrian in úllghort.

Is ní chun do chráite
a éirím gach lá,
ach chun do bháite
faoi leáspairtí grá.
Léim gaiscígh i bhFlaitheas
de dhroim dhroichead Scáthaigh
a apstail, a mhanaigh.

Monk
trans., by Michael Hartnett

You are St Anthony
or some other saint
sitting in your rocky
hermitage.
You make the sign of the cross -
wind and sea no longer toss.
Your hands are full of larks.

I am Temptation.
You know me.
Sometimes I'm Eve,
sometimes the snake:
I slide into your reverie
in the middle of brightest day,
I shine like the sun in an orchard

But its not to torment you
every day I rise -
but to drown you
in love's delights.
I'm a dead hero leaping
from the edge of the bridge of fear -
That's the only reason I haunt you:
my monk, my apostle, my priest.

--- The End ---