A journal of art + literature engaging with nature, culture, the environment & ecology

Overheard on Lough Corrib (English translation)

Art Ó Súilleabháin, Galway, Ireland

 

Reeds lean in the wind, whispering island names, 

rattle the winter withering with sharp consonants

green – a summer with the soft vowels of growth

a language once clear, now lost in a new labelling.

 

Inis Dá Bhuí or Inis Damh Bhuí – Island of two cows 

or of a yellow house, Buaidhe – almost impossible 

in another tongue – Booyeh – the real vowels sound

cluttering the language of foreigners reading maps.

Gulls screech meal triumphs over white-lined rocks 

‘mayflies, mayflies, mayflies’ – a hatch to fill gullets

protein floats from gravel floors – metamorphosis

littering waves with the green vowels of new wings.

A curlew wails a plea into the clouds of south winds

that blow Garbhaí na gCuach into our imaginations

crying long a,e,i,o,u’s to the edges of their freedom

forgotten loved ones fading in the books of memory.

 

I hear undertones of a shout I can no longer ignore

scuff purple spearmint, tearing it from watery roots

lean on a larch post, marking a boundary on the shore 

learning the secrets of the surf lapping round my boots.

  

Irish inclusions

Inis Dá Bhuí (pronounced: inish-dhaw-wee): Island of two cows (an island in Lough Corrib)

Or Inis Damh Bhuí (pronounced: inish-dhaw-wee): Island of the yellow house

Buaidhe (pronounced: boo-yah): Island on one cow (an island in Lough Corrib)

Garbhaí na gCuach (pronounced: gor-vee-nah-goo-ugh): the rough wind from the south that blows the cuckoo to the west of Ireland


Cloiste faoi rún ar an gCoirib (Gaeilge)

Cromann na giolcaí sa ghaoth

ag cogar ainmneacha na n-oileáin

croitheann siad an gheimhreadh 

ag feannadh le consain ghéara

uaithne – samhradh le gutaí boga 

teanga a bhí soiléir tráth, 

anois ar strae i lipéadú nua.

 

Inis Dá Bhuí nó Inis Damh Bhuí – oileán an dá bhó

nó oileán an tí bhuí, Buaidhe – beagnach do-ráite 

i dteanga eile – Booyeh –  fuaimníonn na gutaí fíora

ag plúchadh ráiteas na nGall ag léamh léarscáil. 

Scréachann faoileáin éachtaí thar charraigeacha bhána 

míoltóga Bealtaine – briseadh bhairr le craois a líonadh

snámhann próitéin ó ghrinneall ghairbhéil – athrú ó bhun

ag lot na rabhartaí toinne le gutaí glasa sciatháin fhliucha.

Caoineann crotach achainí i scamaill an ghaoth aneas 

a shéideann Garbhaí na gCuach isteach inár samhlaíocht 

ag olagón á,é,í,ó,ú fada go h-imeall a saoirse 

muirnín dearmadta ag seargadh i leabhair na gcuimhní.

 

Cloisim foshruth, scread nach féidir liom a shéanadh

spágáil mé mismín, á stróiceadh ó fhréamh uisceach

chlaon mé ar chuaille learóige, ag marcáil teorann ar thrá

ag foghlaim rúin na mbrathanna ag slaparnach timpeall mo buataisí.

 

Art Ó Súilleabháin lives in Corr na Móna, Co na Gaillimhe. He spends his time writing and fishing on Lough Corrib. Tá leabhair do pháistí foilsithe aige as Gaeilge agus bhuaigh sé North West Words as Gaeilge. He has published in English in Poetry Ireland Review, Collections by Dedalus Press (Writing Home & Local Wonders), Hold Open the Door from the Ireland Chair of Poetry, The Life of Trees from Cinnamon Press, Skylight 47, Vox Galvia and many other collections. He has broadcast pieces for Sunday Miscellany in English and as Gaeilge.

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