The Bright Field
I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realize now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying
on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.
R. S. Thomas
(1913 - 2000)
-- as Soul Food: Nourishing Poems for Starved Minds, In eagar ag Neil Astley / Pamela Robertson-Pearce
An Gort Geal
Chonacsa an ghrian ag briseadh tríd
agus gort beag aici á shoilsiú
tamall, is leanas orm
is dheineas é a dhearúd. Ach ba é an péarla
sárluachmhar é, an t-aon ghort
a raibh taisce ann. Tuigim anois
go gcaithfeadsa a bhfuil agam a thabhairt uaim
chun seilbh a ghlacadh air. Ní brostú go dtí todhchaí
is í ag cúlú uainn atá sa tsaol, ná santú i ndiaidh
an ama atá thart mar a thaibhsítear dúinn é. Casadh
i leataobh atá ann mar a chas Maois
chun an toir lasta, chun na gile sin
a shíl tú seal a bheith chomh neamhbhuan
le d’óige, ach gurb í an tsíoraíocht í atá ag feitheamh leat.
The Bricht Perk
A hae gliskit the sin brek throuch
tae lichten a peerie perk
a while, syne gane ma wey
an gien it nae mynd. Bit yon wis the pairl
o muckle wirth, the yin perk
thit hud the treisur in't. A ken nou
thit a maun gie aw a hae
tae awn it. Life's no stoorin on
tae a dwinin futur, nor greenin fir
an imaigined bygane. It's the turnin abeich
lik Moses tae the meericle o
the lichtit buss, tae a brichtness
thit seemed as transistor as yer youthiness yince,
bit's the ayebydand thit wytes fir ye.
John McDonald