An Duanaire 1600-1690; Poems of the dispossessed
In response to a war in summer 2006 I had published a small piece on Dispossession voiced by Inanna. I remember the veracity of the words for the specific reason that they are often mouthed by others in literary history , often anonymous, often the voices of women (and indeed in the chorus ) ; be it in TS Eliot, Shakespeare or Atwood. (i)
They may be found in the exilic lament in Anglo-Saxon poetry (such as The Wanderer or The Wife’s Lament) through Anitgone or the laments of the Island women, so beautifully written by Mary Lavin in The Green Grave, The Black Grave, or indeed in my own writing of laments, although I consider them inadequate mostly.
One book I return to again and again is An Duanaire ,the poems date 1600-1900 and revolve round the theme of lament and exilic condition, something in this mad technological rush to Lebensraum and democracy (on which mostly the unwilling do not have a chance to dialogue, civil society groups always among the first to be repressed) has led to homelessness , Camps and gentrification : a global hidden exilic condition grounded in greed .
Ochón, A Dhonnacha (excerpted)
‘The moon is dark and I cannot sleep.
All ease has left me.
The candid Gaelic seems harsh and gloomy
– an evil omen.
I hate the time that I pass with friends,
their wit torments me.
Since the day I saw you on the sands so lifeless
no sun has shone. “
and ‘S í Blath na Sméar í
‘* S í Bláth Geal na Sméar í ‘
” ‘S í Blath geal na smear í
‘s í bláth deas na sú craobh í
‘s í planda b’fhearr méin mhaith
le hamharc do shúl
‘s í mo chuisle, ‘s í mo rún í
‘s í a bláth na n-úll gcumhra í,
is samhradh ins an fhuacht í
idir Nollaig is Cáisc.”
dedicated to Viola and Christina, two Roma girls who died from drowning , images of their bodies were published in the world press as they lay dead on an italian beach
You’re currently reading “An Dunaire- Poems of the Dispossessed.,” an entry on Poethead
(Published: 09/08/2008 / 09:21 Category: War Tags: 25 pins in a packet )
Notes :
- (i) T.S Eliot ‘Murder in the Cathedral ‘ – the Chorus, Margaret Atwood’s
- ‘The Penelopiad’ -The Chorus.
- (ii). An Duanaire 1600-1690, Poems of the Dispossessed, le Seán ó Tuama is Thomas Kinsella.
The Image is Man Of Peace by Leonard Baskin, a man who spent a lifetime drawing and sculpting in the Post-Holocaust period and coming to terms with his identity as a Diaspora Jew.
Chris Murray 