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Seamus Heaney's "Beacons
at Bealtaine"
It is rare that a poet
of such eminence as
Seamus Heaney agrees
to free global publication
of one of his works.
The poem below, commissioned
by the Government of
Ireland to celebrate
the accession of ten
new member states to
the European Union at
a ceremony in Dublin
on Bealtaine, (May Day)
2004, is one exception
to the general practice,
hence its appearance
in this e-zine.
Lest anyone needs reminding,
Seamus Heaney is Ireland's
foremost living poet.
He was born "near
hand" Derry in
1939, and his gifted
talent won him the Nobel
Prize for Literature
in 1995.
In a prefatory note Heaney
explains the significance
of Beltaine from earliest
times.
"In the Celtic
calendar that once
regulated the seasons
in many parts of
Europe, May Day,
known in Irish as
Bealtaine, was the
feast of bright
fire, the first
of summer, one of
the four great quarter
days of the year.
The early Irish Leabhar
Gabhála (The
Book of Invasions),
tells us that the
first magical inhabitants
of the country,
the Tuatha Dé
Danaan, arrived
on the feast of
Bealtaine, and a
ninth century text
indicates that on
the same day the
druids drove flocks
out to pasture between
two bonfires.
So there is something
auspicious about
the fact that a
new flocking together
of the old European
nations happens
on this day of mythic
arrival in Ireland;
and it is even more
auspicious that
we celebrate it
in a park named
after the mythic
bird that represents
the possibility
of ongoing renewal.
But there are those
who say that the
name Phoenix Park
is derived from
the Irish words,
fionn uisce,
meaning "clear
water" and
that coincidence
of language gave
me the idea for
this poem.
It's what the poet
Horace might have
called a carmen
sæculare,
a poem to salute
and celebrate an
historic turn in
the sæculum,
the age."
Beacons at
Bealtaine
Phoenix Park,
May Day, 2004
Uisce: water.
And fionn: the
water's clear.
But dip and
find this Gaelic
water Greek:
A phoenix flames
upon fionn uisce
here.
Strangers were
barbaroi to
the Greek ear.
Now let the
heirs of all
who could not
speak
The language,
whose ba-babbling
was unclear,
Come with their
gift of tongues
past each frontier
And find the
answering voices
that they seek
As fionn and
uisce answer
phoenix here.
The May Day hills
were burning,
far and near,
When our land's
first footers
beached boats
in the creek
In uisce, fionn,
strange words
that soon grew
clear;
So on a day when
newcomers appear
Let it be a
homecoming and
let us speak
The unstrange
word, as it
behoves us here,
Move lips, move
minds and make
new meanings
flare
Like ancient
beacons signalling,
peak to peak,
From middle
sea to north
sea, shining
clear
As phoenix flame
upon fionn uisce
here.
The following is a translation
of the poem into Irish
by Gabriel Rosenstock.
Maoláin
na Bealtaine
Páirc
an Fhionnuisce,
Lá Bealtaine,
2004
Uisce agus fionn.
Tá an
t-uisce glé.
Ach tum ann
is gheobhair
Gréagach
é:
Féinics
ar bharr lasrach
ar fhionnuisce
é.
Barbarach a
thug an Gréagach
ar an stróinséir.
Tagadh sliocht
na mbarbarach
sin go léir
Lena dteangacha
a bhí,
tráth,
doiléir,
Tagaigí
anois as gach
aon limistéir
Chun macalla
a phiocadh as
an spéir
-
Féinics
is fionnuisce
- go réidh.
Bhí maoláin
ar lasadh i
bhfad is i gcéin
Nuair a nocht
na chéad
bháid
as farraige
mhéith
Uisce agus fionn
go stadach i
mbarr a mbéil.
Éirímis
inár
seasamh, a chlann,
de léim
Gach éinne
is a theanga
nach tafann
í ná
méil
Chun bríonna
nua a chur i
gcéill
Beola a bhogadh,
is gan stad
dár réim
Ach sinn inár
maoláin,
ó ré
go ré,
Ag lonrú
amach as broinn
an aigéin
Is fionnuisce
ann - is sinn
fhéin.
(Deireann eagarthóir
an e-zine seo, "Molaim
an file, molaim an dán,
agus molaim an aistrightheóir.")
--30--
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