Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

Gone to Earth by Gréagóir O Dúill,
86 pp, ISBN 0-9537570-7-2, Black Mountain Press, Ballyclare, Co Antrim, N. Ireland, 2005.

Being Irish but with no knowledge of the Irish language, when I hear poetry read in Gaelic I find myself awash in a world that I half do know — the guttural consonants and long pure vowels; the odd recognisable place-name. It has been suggested that not to understand the literal meaning of what one is listening to liberates one to enjoy the music of the poetry. This may be true but for me it's an empty enjoyment, and frustration occupies that vacuum. Learn Irish then, you might say, and OK I am trying, but it's hard.

   At the heart of the Gaelic renaissance was the great Scottish poet Sorley Maclean, recording Europe's 20th century in his native Raasay. His baton has now, arguably, passed to the Irish Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, and among the crowd of good supporting writers in Irish is this Ulster poet Gréagóir O Dúill, translated here by Bernie Kenny. The parallel translations are good poems in themselves. Try this, from the opening stanza of Stone Age:

     I clear the field, but a rock resists me.
     Back bent, I carry it to the edge,
     place it with care in the drystone wall,
     but the wall, already full, refuses it.
     There is space there for the wren, the foraging stoat,
     blackbird ringing angelus, holly's unhurried growth.
     There are small windows for the sky ....

Symbols of the pagan and the Christian are here; the mythical blackbird, and timeless human labour, a clear eye and clean, tender language. Later in the poem the stone goes into the car boot, making it happen now; making myth and history current. The best thing to do is to read the translation over a few times, then have a bash at the Irish. Aloud of course. Great stuff.