I came across poems by Jacinta Kerketta in the current issue of Modern Poetry in Translation (No. 2, 2024). As a language-activist poet-translator, you can see why I was immediately drawn to her work. I wanted to know more. I have made a transcreation in Irish (and recording) of the second poem below, one of the most moving eco-poems I have encountered in many a day.
Cén fáth nach bPioctar an Mathua den Chrann?
A Mháithrín, cén fáth a fhanann tú ar feadh na hoíche
go dtite an mathua?
Cén fáth nach bpiocann tú
na torthaí go léir den chrann?
Arsa mo Mháithrín -
Mairid sa bhroinn an oíche go léir.
Nuair a thagann a n-uain
Titid go talamh as a stuaim féin.
Ag breacadh an lae, agus iad ar maos i ndrúcht
Bailímid iad le tabhairt abhaile linn.
Agus an crann i dtinneas clainne
An oíche go léir
Abair liom, conas a chroithfinn
an ghéag go teann?
Abair, conas a phiocfainn an mathua
go fórsúil den chrann?
Fanaimid, sin uile,
Mar go bhfuil grá againn dóibh.
Why the Mahua is not Plucked from the Tree?
Mother, why do you wait all night
for the mahua to drop?
Why don’t you not
just pluck all the mahua from the tree?
Mother says –
They live in the womb all night long.
When the time for their birth comes
They fall by themselves to the earth.
At dawn, when they’re soaked in the dew
We pick them up and bring them home.
When the tree is going through
Labor pains all night long
Tell me, how I can
shake the branch hard?
Say, how I can forcibly
pluck the mahua from a tree?
We just wait
Because we love them.
क्यों महुए तोड़े नहीं जाते पेड़ से?/ Kyon Mahue Tode Nahi Jate Ped Se?/ Why the Mahua is not Plucked from the Tree?