Hi guys,
My homework for tomorrow was translating an Irish poem. Normally, I'm not really a poem-person, but this one is really beautiful. The poem is by Louis de Paor, translation by me!!
Croíbhualadh (Heartbeat)
Marble rain
Is clattering on the roof,
Fingernails of anxiety
drumming
on my skull.
I can't sleep.
Behind her shut eyes,
She follows the sun
through long halls of sleep
Her stretched body
lying against me
without temptation
For a smaller distance
than the smallest distance
her breath stops
at its peak
indrawn,
a phone before ringing
a car before crashing
The wind holds a breath
and a listening ear.
The noise
of a hundred maladjusted clocks
smothers the whisper of blood
in my bruised heart
Until her chest drops
and releases
sweet burden of air
in a smothered muffler
the fear of my mouth
Happy furore bursts in my pulse,
with noise of bumpercars
on a fair day in Youghal,
a rattling of a phone
in closed exchange,
shoes of the rain
on the slate floor above me,
until the whispering of the insensible clock
wakes my clapping heart
to tell me later on
that her breath will stop
for a longer time
than eternity
the rain continues
shovelling stone above me.
Can't sleep.
Louis de Paor reads this poem in Irish:
