Sunday, June 25, 2006

Subh Mhilis (and my sweet jam translation)

A beautiful, simple Irish poem by Seamas O'Neill (1910-1981) that I learned at school (taken from Favourite Poems We Learned In School As Gaeilge, compiled by Thomas F. Walsh, Mercier Press 1994):

Bhí subh mhilis
Ar bhoschrann an dorais,
Ach mhúch me an corraí
Ionam a d'éirigh,

Mar smaoinigh mé ar an lá
A bheas an bhoschrann glan,
Agus an lámh bheag
Ar iarraidh.

And here's my doesn't-do-it-justice translation:

There was jam
on the door handle
but I held back the anger
that was beginning to rise

because I thought of the day
when the door handle would be clean
and the little hand
gone away.

2 Comments:

Blogger MáirtínTJ said...

Táim buíoch duit ón aistruchán a rinneas don dán deas seo. Caith súil ar mo dhialann (blog) ag worldwalks.blogspot.com.

4:10 pm  
Blogger genevieve said...

Oh, that is so beautifully compressed. Talk about Irish haiku.Thank you for posting that.

11:29 am  

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