dublinka

Dairena ní Chinnéide's wonderful bilingual gaelic/english offerings are well worth a look at. Aside from her newer work, I particularly like An Bhaibaire or The Whistler, which conjures up that old world Ireland, which refuses to leave the imagination, and in rare places, the land itself. It's also interesting to see how the gaelic alliteration is transposed into english. Sometimes being kept, at other times lost. There's an extract from it below. Draíochtach.

An Bhaibaire
(Do Mhichael Hurley)

Is an bhaibaire
Ag luascadh lena ríl
Is na síoga ag déanamh
Col-seisear le ceol
Na sean- mhná tráthnóna.

And the whistler
Sways to her own rhythm
With the faeries doing
A six-hand reel
To the old womans music
At evening time.