Poetry Unbound - Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill

On Apple Podcasts, with Pádraig Ó Tuama

Recorded on Nov. 20, 2020

This short podcast is a tribute to the dialects of another indigenous language - Irish - but it evokes similar deep responses to the embrace and nurturing of a language of the Land. I think you will all enjoy this.

Link to the On Being / Poetry Unbound episode here. Apple podcast listing here.

Ceist na Teangan

by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill

Cuirim mo dhóchas ar snámh
i mbáidín teangan
faoi mar a leagfá naíonán
i gcliabhán
a bheadh fite fuaite
de dhuilleoga feileastraim
is bitiúmin agus pic
bheith cuimilte lena thóin
ansan é a leagadh síos
i measc na ngiolcach
is coigeal na mban sí
le taobh na habhann,
féachaint n’fheadaraís
cá dtabharfaidh an sruth é,
féachaint, dála Mhaoise,
an bhfóirfidh iníon Fharoinn?

I place my hope on the water
in this little boat
of the language, the way a body might put
an infant
in a basket of intertwined
iris leaves,
its underside proofed
with bitumen and pitch,
then set the whole thing down amidst
the sedge
and bulrushes by the edge
of a river
only to have it borne hither and thither,
not knowing where it might end up;
in the lap, perhaps,
of some Pharaoh’s daughter.