Traditional Gaelic songs and poems are especially rich in naturalistic imagery, as indeed are the haikus of the poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh. This remarkable nature poet from the western hills of Donegal has been a deep well of inspiration for Ó Dochartaigh. Ó Searcaigh’s work is the epitome of Kuno Meyer’s oft-quoted statement:
“It is characteristic of these (Irish) poems that in none of them do we get an elaborate or sustained description of any scene or scenery, but rather a succession of pictures and images which the poet, like an impressionist, calls up before us by light and skilful touches…”
Lines / Painting titles with translations
⊗ Tá ár gcuid rútaí ag muirniú a chéile go buan
(Our roots caress till the end of time)
⊗ Thar bhánta na Bealtaine
Lonraíonn deora drúchta –
Bealach na Bó Finne
(Over the plains of Bealtaine
dewdrops glisten –
The Milky Way)
⊗ Aiteann i mbláth –
buíocán uibhe doirte
ar fud Ghleann an Átha
(Gorse in bloom –
egg-yolk spilt
all over Gleann an Átha)
⊗ Oíche dhuibhre
clúdaíodh cabhsa na cille
le Deora Dé…
(A moonless night
path to the graveyard
covered with fucsia…)
⊗ Ó bhláthanna an chrainn úlll
titeann beannachtaí go binn
ar bhándearg mo chraicinn
(From apple-tree blossoms
blessings sweetly fall
on my skin’s pinkness)
⊗…agus ar ucht na Mucaise siúd cíoch na gealaí
ag gobadh as gúna dubh na hoíche
(…and o’er Mucais’s lap younder
the moon’s breast bulging
out of the black dress of night)
⊗…is chluinfeá geantraí sí
i gclingireacht na gcloigíní gorma
i gcoillidh Fhána Buí
(…and you will hear fairy love-songs
in the tinkle of the bluebells
in the woods of Fána Bhuí)
⊗ Teach tréigthe roimhe anocht.
ar an tairseach, faoi lom na gealaí, nocht,
Scáile an tseanchrainn a chuir sé blianta ó shoin
(He’s back tonight to a deserted house.
on the doorstep, under a brilliant moon, a stark
shadow; the tree he planted years ago is an old tree)
⊗…an tobar is glaine i nGleann an Átha
(…the purist well in Gleann an Átha)
⊗ Tá siad folaithe i bhfeagacha agus i bhféar,
tachtaithe ag caileannógach agus cuiscreach…
(They’re hidden in rushes and grass,
choked by green scum and ferns…)
⊗ An spéir ar dhath ór Mhuire
tráthnóna earraigh i nDún Lúiche
(…the sky the colour of maigolds
One spring evening in Dún Lúiche)
⊗ Tar éis eadra
thosaigh crainn ag síothlú na gaoithe…
(After morning milking-time
the trees began to strain the wind)
⊗ Mo cheol thú, a sheantí!
(Such music, old house!)
⊗ …siorradh gaoithe ó Mhám an tSeantí
ag slíocadh fraoigh go síoraí in Altán
(…gusts of wind from the
mountain pass of Mám an tSeantí
eternally stroking the heather in Altán)
Dathadóireacht as Filíocht (Painting from Poetry)
Sraith pictiúirí ar théamaí i bhfilíocht Chathail Uí Shearcaigh (1995)
Paintings by Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh based on themes from the poetry of Cathal Ó Searcaigh
FOINSI (SOURCES)
Tideal an dáin (Title of Poem)
Crainn (Trees)
Earrach (Spring)
Samhradh (Summer)
Marbhna (Lament for the Dead)
Dathanna (Colors)
Súile Shuibhne (Sweeney’s Eyes)
Níl Aon Ní (There is Nothing)
Pilleadh an Deoraí (Exile’s Return)
An Tobar (The Well)
An tAngelus [The Angelus)
Ard na gCloch Corr (Cataclysm)
Fothrach Tí i Mín na Craoibhe (Ruin of House in Mín na Craoibhe)
Cíoradh (Combing)
Tá na dánta seo thuas curtha i gcló ag Cló Iar-Chonnachta agus Coiscéim
English translations by Gabriel Fitzmaurice, Seamus Heaney, Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh, Gabriel Rosenstock, Cathal Ó Searcaigh and Thomas McCarthy.
