Tag Archives: Irish poetry

A poem by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill to celebrate International Women’s Day 2012

Happy International Women’s Day 2012. The following poem is by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill , there is a translation and attribution notice published separately to An Mhurúch san Ospidéal. 

An Mhurúch san Ospidéal

‘ Dhúisigh sí
agus ní raibh a heireaball éisc ann
níos mó
ach istigh sa leaba léi
bhí an dá rud fada fuar seo.
Ba dhóigh leat gur gaid mhara iad
nó slaimicí feola.

‘Mar mhagadh atá siad
ní foláir,
Oíche na Coda Móire.
Tá leath na foirne as a meabhair
le deoch
is an leath eile acu
róthugtha do jokeanna.
Mar sin féin is leor an méid seo,’
is do chaith sí an dá rud
amach as an seomra.

Ach seo í an chuid
ná tuigeann sí —
conas a thit sí féin ina ndiaidh
‘cocs-um-bo-head’.
Cén bhaint a bhí
ag an dá rud léi
nó cén bhaint a bhí aici
leosan?

An bhanaltra a thug an nod di
is a chuir í i dtreo an eolais —
‘Cos í seo atá ceangailte díot
agus ceann eile acu anseo thíos fút.
Cos, cos eile,
a haon, a dó.

Caithfidh tú foghlaim
conas siúl leo.’

Ins na míosa fada
a lean
n’fheadar ar thit a croí
de réir mar a thit
trácht na coise uirthi,
a háirsí?’

© by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, all rights reserved. from The Fifty Minute Mermaid (Gallery Books, 2007)

Thank you to Gallery Press for allowing me to use this poem to celebrate Irish Women’s Poetry and translation on International Women’s Day 2012. The English translation of the poem is here.

Clonfert Cathedral mermaid by Andreas F. Borchert

‘I have come to ask certain disrespectful questions of the tradition’; Boland on poetry’s ‘lesser-space’

‘I am an Irish poet. A woman poet. In the first category I enter the tradition of the English language at an angle. In the second, I enter my own tradition at an even more steep angle. I need to be candid about this because, of course, these two identities shape and re-shape what I have to say today. The authority of the poet – that broad and challenging theme – is really, in my case, a series of instincts and hunches. The difference in my case, is that while many poets look to the past for the story of that authority, I no longer do so. I have stopped listening to the story which grants automatic authority to the poet and automatic importance to the poem. Instead, I have come to see a suppressed narrative.’

I have often wondered at the angle that Eavan Boland speaks of in this excerpted speech from the PN Review. The speech entitled Gods Make Their Own Importance was delivered  in 1994 under the auspices of the Poetry Book Society. Eavan Boland revisited a variation on this theme  in 2007 when she interviewed with the Boston Globe. I know that its a bit impertinent to extract a blog post from the two linked pieces, but I thought to examine the idea of contemporary women poets taking on larger themes, rather than those small and domestic things so indicative of the lesser-space which Eavan Boland discussed.

The Boston Globe article,  Exploring Poetry’s Lesser Space (2007) is as relevant now as it was at the time and maybe more so.  Critical review of poetry  is either absent or confined to particular little corners here in Ireland. I can take some recent examples of  this absence  which I have published here on the blog, the Irish Times Books of 2011 did not allow for a single poetry publication, for instance . I have (to date) not seen a review of Oswald’s Memorial in our papers of note, or indeed in any of the Irish newspapers. Lucky then that good reviews are available elsewhere to lovers of poetry and non-fiction, by those who take the idea of a non-fiction readership seriously, and cater then to a less-limited spectrum of reading tastes and experiences. I am linking Michael Lista‘s National Post Review of  Oswald’s Memorial here .

If a male-author of our small writing establishment had stripped down The Iliad and had written a powerful dirge as Oswald  has undoubtedly achieved in Memorial,  would it have made it to the end of year book lists ? I do not think that the issue regarding the provision of  space for readers of non-fiction and poetry is the problem, it appears to be based on the marketing of  books. Oswald’s withdrawal from the T.S Eliot prize was noted in the Irish Times and indeed in the Irish Independent, but there is as far as I can see no review of the actual book on either website. Is it considered unladylike for women poets to take on vast themes that are decidedly not domestic-celebratory, and thus not interesting to reviewers?

In 2010 VIDA  (Women in the Literary Arts) published The Count, which showed a truly abysmal lack in critical review of women literary writers and poets. I feel that 2011 has been better for women in literature, although there are as yet no published figures available.  I have to wonder if lack of critical and intellectual  reviews of poets like Alice  Oswald  are based within the same confined dogmatic parameters that Boland alluded to in the linked lecture and interview . The small poems of the domestic, the novels,  and some genres seem open to review  and discussion but the larger themes are passed over and ignored. There appears to be a lack of balance inherent in how certain genres are presented to readers of literature, which reflects a small coterie of  male-writers and their  special interests.

Of course it could be simply a matter of impatience on my part to see what reviewers make of books by women writers that exist outside of the poetic lesser-space and its artificial confines. I do not see contemporary women reviewers or women critics asking the questions that Eavan Boland did in 2007, so my assumption that the issue of how we look at women literary writers and poets in Ireland must have been resolved satisfactorily without my noting it.

Or

It could be entirely  presumed that women reviewers really do not give much of a fuck about Irish literature unless it exists within a cut-out pattern that they are entirely comfortable with , the same consistent group of books reviewed within the same confining parameters that please their bosses, and indeed that small group of writers who accept a formulaic critique as a matter of course.

Related Links

2011 poetry news, and online information for poets.

Given that the Irish Times Books of the Year did not make mention of poetry books for 2011, I thought to add some links to Irish poetry  presses and imprints for those readers of poetry who are not catered for in the list-system. I have to say that I do not think of such ephemera as dates when I approach a book of poetry and my reading included some 2010 volumes (and earlier).  The beauty of poetry is that it is timeless and  poetry books are always relevant. I am going to add links for some poetry publishers, and then some good online resources for readers and writers of poetry. I wonder how many of the books at link will survive the test of time ? (or even taste,  ” So good, so funny, so real, so very, very sad” , is what amounts to review in the article).

Irish presses and poetry journals.

I can add to this list Poetry Ireland , The SHOp Magazine , Moth (Little Editions) , Post (DCU) , Crannóg , Burning Bush , The Munster Literature Centre ( and SouthWord), The Western Writers Centre, Over the Edge, Tigh Filí , and The Irish Writer’s Centre . Online Poetry concerns include Writing.ie , Emerging Writer , Wurm in Apfel , Nuala Ní Chonchúir, and all of the above mentioned presses that use online as a source of income and connection for writers.

2011 bits and pieces.

I reviewed a few books this year and I have blogged these over the past twelve months, I liked Jeet Thayil‘s edition of Contemporary Indian Poetry and told him too, The moth magazine ‘Little Editions’  , Susan Lindsay’s ‘Whispering the Secrets, John Walsh’s ‘Chopping Wood with T.S Eliot, Human Chain by Seamus Heaney. I intend to get Memorial, by Alice Oswald and I  will probably blog that too. AND this year 2011, I published some almost lost Doris Lessing Poems Here , in all a wonderful poetic year for me as a reader and writer.

This year saw the cutting of funds to Poetry Now ! and barely a whisper of protest in the media, and there was some controversy at the T.S Eliot Prize . My  favourite story of the year had to be the restoration of  Sue Hubbard’s ‘Eurydice’.  The fourth annual Turn at Tara occurred, although some newspapers would rather not look at the wound created by rampant planning unbalanced by a single heritage and conservation bill in over a decade!  Poetry happens in the most wonderful places , although these places are generally  not full of  literary liggers. Two wonderful editors had a spat, although Irish media coverage of same was void ,empty. I really do wonder if poetry loses importance due to the glitter and tinsel of PR management, and souped-up interest in disposable tales (the type that makes it to the charity-shops within  three-four week periods of publication and sells for 1-2 Euros ?).

As is usual , I have to say that good poetry discussion occurs at  Jacket2, UBUWEB, The Poetry Foundation , Salt , Anon. Pierre Joris’  Nomadics is an interesting site for those interested in translation and outsider poetics.

Other newspapers have published poetry lists for 2011.

‘Yes, Minister’ , a poem by John Walsh

” While brushing my teeth
I stop to think of the Minister’s words
and I feel how lucky we are indeed
to have a Green Minister like him to tell us
not to be wasting water running it
while brushing our teeth.

And I wonder if he’s noticed
that it’s been pissing the rain for weeks
and the eco-warriors are up to their eyes in muck
in their flooded dugouts on the Hill of Tara.

But he says he is not in a position to go there
for he is afraid of getting his hands dirty
and he’ll have to go washing them all over again,
wasting everyone’s time and energy,
including his own.

Seamus Heaney thinks it’s a disgrace,
but sure nobody listens to him. “

Thanks to John Walsh. This poem is from Chopping Wood with T.S Eliot, Publ. Salmon Poetry 2010.

Two Poems by Colette Ní Ghallchóir.

The Spark of Joy / Dealan an Aoibhnis

” When I lit the sparkler
long ago on the hearth,
I ran the house with it screaming with delight.
They scolded me,
but grandfather said,
‘Let her be,
let her be,
there is no use talking.
She will always light
any flame she wishes.’

by Colette Ní Ghallchóir, trans,  Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill

Trans, Dealán an Aoibhnis

” Nuair a lás mé an dealán
Fadó ar an teallach,
Rith mé leis ar fud an tí
Go háthasach.
Bagraíodh orm,
Ach dúirt no sheanathair leo -
‘Lig di lig di,
Níl  gar a bheith léi,
Lasfaidh sisi i gconaí
Na dealáin is mian léi .’

le Colette Ní Ghallchóir.

Divorce 19th-century Style.

‘That is not the way
things are done
in this townland,’
she said.

‘Well , if it isn’t,’ said he,
‘then go and do it yourselves.’
And he had crossed Gleann Tornáin
before nightfall.

‘How come you never told me,’ said I
to my father, ‘that they had been separated for a while?’
‘You don’t broadcast
all news,’ he said …
‘Anyway the end of the matter
is that he died here at home.’

le Colette Ní Ghallchóir, trans, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill.

Colscaradh na Naoú hAoise Déag.

‘Chan sin an dóigh
A bhfuil rudaí déanta
Ar an bhaile seo,’
A duirt sí.

‘Munab é,’ arsa seisean
‘Déanaigí féin é.’
Agus thrasnaigh sé
Gleann Tornáin
Roimh thitim na hóiche.

‘Char inis tú dom,’ arsa mise
Le m’athair, ‘go raibh siad scarta tamall.’
‘Ní churieann tú an nuacht
Uilig sna páipéir,’ ar seisean…
‘Cibe scéal de,
Fuair sé bás sa bhaile.’

Le Colette Ní Ghallchóir  ,

from The New Irish Poets, ed, Selina Guinness. 2004, Bloodaxe Books.

Bio of Colette Ní Ghallchóir , Colette was born in the Ghleann Mór Gaelteacht in central Donegal. Her poems are published in The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, Volume 5, her book Idir Dha Ghleann was published by Coiscéim 2005.