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Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Haiku Conallach

















Titeann scáth ó ghob
geal an tseabhaic. Critheann croí luich
sa bhfraoch istigh.

3 comments:

Anne said...

Stupid question #1: is that an osprey?
Stupid question #2: any chance of some kind of translation? (I know that is a particularly stupid question, as you would have written it in English if that is what you meant.)

puthwuth said...

A peregrine, an fabhcún gorm. Are there ospreys in Donegal? I don't know.

An impromptu translation of that haiku (and thank you asking) might go:

Falls a shadow from
the hawk's bright beak. Mouse in the
gorse's heart trembles.

Anne said...

Thank you. And you kept the syllabics in the translation.

(Is fabhcún cognate with falcon? (A wise falcon??)) I don't know a hawk from a handsaw.

I just looked it up: there used to be ospreys in Donegal but they were hunted out.