This anthology offers modern readers modern, new translations of
the lyric poetry transcribed or written by medieval Irish monks.
Irish poets were the first Europeans to write in the vernacular,
though few people now read this poetry in its original. Well known
for her translations of the poetry of classical Greece, ancient
Egypt, and medieval Portugal, Barbara Hughes Fowler once again
makes the poetry of another era accessible to a new generation.
The 35 lyrics in this collection were composed between 800 and
1200 A.D., all of them anonymously, although some are attributed to
legendary or historical figures who had died centuries before.
Irish monks wrote them in the margins of the manuscripts they were
copying, or they interpolated poems they either knew or composed
into the pagan tales they were recording.
Many of these poems are about what the Irish called Tir na n'Og,
the Land of the Young. This was not a place you went after death if
you behaved yourself in life. It was where imaginative Irish longed
to go -- a paradise of lovely women, bountiful food and drink, and
endless treasures of silver, gold, and jewels. The monks who
composed or recorded such lyrics preserved their Celtic heritage
while making concessions to Christianity, as in these stanzas from
"Fair Lady, Will You Go With Me?"
The earth is watered by sweet streams.
We drink the best of mead and wine.
Perfect are the people there.
Conception has no guilt or sin.
We see every one about, and no one sees us, because the darkness
caused by Adam's sin prevents them from counting us.
Lyric poems, rooted so firmly in the expression of human
emotion, travel well from an ancient culture to a modern one in
thehands of a fine translator. Rendered into language and form
intended for a general readership, these lyrics help to preserve an
ancient and rich culture.
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