Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh
Bilingual (Translations by thirteen writers)
There I was and will be again,
making sense, or trying to,
of the heart in the mouth,
the tongue ablaze, all those promises . . .
Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh’s poems in Irish have been lavished with plaudits and prizes. They blend dreams and dread visions. Collapsing ages and traditions, banshees and pookas infiltrate a modern, urban sensibility. Loss and longing co-exist in sensual images and expressions.
The Coast Road, from named places — Galway and Harlem, Antarctica and Kilmalkedar — to imagined states, including ‘the madhouse behind the moon’, is a book of uncommon range and searing effect.
Among its themes are language and languages, their failure and throes, and silence too. In its variety of responses the book may be read as a guide to the possibilities of translation itself. In it, some of Ireland’s finest poets gather to spread the word and introduce a vital voice to a wider audience.
Selected poems in Irish with translations into English by Michael Coady • Peter Fallon • Tom French • Alan Gillis • Vona Groarke • John McAuliffe • Medbh McGuckian • Paul Muldoon • Michelle O’Sullivan • Justin Quinn • Billy Ramsell • Peter Sirr • David Wheatley
Price: 12.50 pb / 18.50 hb
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