....I'll throw this curveball ball in, not so much seasonal, but because I like this cautionary ode to the power of the anima.
Kundalini
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
Selected Poems: Rogha Dánta
Dublin:
Raven Arts Press,1986
[original text as Gaeilge]
Kundalini - translation
by Michael Harnett
Excuse me, but have you not forgot something here? Talk about being incautious in the presence of the soul force.
[long, significant pause]
Fine, then, I'll do it meself. Not sitting idly by, indeed. hmph.
It's not such a bad translation/version, that by Michael Hartnett, but here's what Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill actually wrote:
Ná bain an leac ded chroí,
thíos faoi tá nathair nimhe
ina luí i lúba.
Éinne a thaighdeann an poll,
geobhaidh sé ina codladh ann
an ollphiast ghránna.
Éiríonn sí taobh thiar ded dhrom,
is uafar agus is géar a glam
ar fuaid na dúiche.
Caortha agus tinte teo,
coinneal a súl ag at, is ag reo
na fola i do dhearna.
Is ní cabhair duit, a Naomh Cúán,
dramhlach na mine a chur ar a ceann,
tá sí rómhór dhuit.
Is ní féidir leat dallamullóg
a chur uirthi seo mar a dheinis fad ó
le cleasaíocht focal.
Atann is tagann clipí ar a drom,
d’íosfadh sí train agus leath don domhan
gan cead ó éinne.
Cinte, ceainte tá sí ann,
go breith an brátha, go brách na breithe.
Amen, a thiarna.
