2019-01-21

cá'il sí anois?

Ron Rosenstock
will no one tell me
what she sings ...
where is she now
nach ndearfadh éinne liom
cad tá a chanadh aici ...
cá'il sí anois
κανείς δεν μου λέει
τι τραγουδά εκείνη ...
πού είναι τώρα

Leagan Gréigise: Sarah Thilykou
NOTE: Haiku often employs literary allusion. Here we have an echo of Wordsworth's Solitary Reaper.
'Behold her single in the field, yon solitary Highland lass.' Wordsworth is dying to know what she is singing but, of course, she is singing in Gaelic so it's a lost world to him.
Gaelic would disappear from the Highlands before long, the people forced out out to make way for English sheep.