Píosa faoi filíocht i nGaeilge san Irish Times inniu

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2009/0112/1231515545310.html

quote:

He believes the small readership of Irish-language poetry is made up largely of those who are writing themselves and "would, on average, compared to most people, have a very deep understanding of the tradition and of the background. So that does make a big difference. There isn't a large readership, but I think in general it's quite a high-quality readership."

Is beag filíocht a léim fhéin, caithfidh mé a rá.

You'd be surprised, a Aonghuis.

I'm not big on poetry myself - I prefer sean-nós singing - but some of my Japanese students of the Irish language were very interested in poems in Irish and would bring one in every few months to go through in class. When we toured Ireland some of them specifically looked for anthologies of Irish poetry, especially ones with English translations.

The Irish Literature Society in Tokyo also studies poetry as well as prose, some of it in Irish.

Poets are usually full of shite. I wish no one bought poems in any language, and is my plain opinion.

This is not an age where poetry mirrors back the hopes and desires of the masses, and something everyone can dip in (as may once have been the case), but rather is an exercise in navel gazing, autobiography and egocentricism for the poet themselves and is often expressed in language so obtuse as to be meaningless.

People don't care, and they are right. How can we know what the poetry is about, if it is confusing and possibly even meaningless. For example, how many hours have been spent by people trying to decode Yeat's poetry in the hope of uncovering something of import, when they truth is that he was a useless Ango-Irish drug addicted flake and nothing else

As a musician (audio art) I feel for the poet (lyrical art). At least when I'm skint, I can earn a few euro busking on the street.


That Actor Kiss
I kissed my father as he lay in bed

in the ward. Nurses walked on soles of sleep

and old men argued with themselves all day.

The seven decades locked inside his head

congealed into a timeless leaking heap,

the painter lost his sense of all but grey.

The actor kiss fell down in a shaft too deep

to send back echoes that I would have prized
-
‘29 was ‘41 was ‘84,

all one in his kaleidoscopic eyes

(he willed to me his bitterness and thirst,

his cold ability to close a door).

Later over a drink, I realized

that was our last kiss and, alas, our first.

Michael Hartnett

That's a nice one, Asarlaí.

Other people's pastimes often seem frivolous, but never our own. Isn't that strange?

Years ago, someone said to me "why are you learning a useless language like Irish? Why don't you learn something useful like Korean?"

Well, Irish has proven more useful to me in my own music and in my travels and even as a source of income when I was offered a job teaching it. Not to mention the pleasure of helping to keep alive a language and culture that is in danger of being lost into the monoculture.

I eventually learnt some Korean anyway (had a Korean girlfriend for a while) but it never came close to my love of Irish.

Anyway, my point is that utility is relative and personal and I don't begrudge others if that is what they enjoy doing. Some people choose to watch sport, some go fishing, some get lost in their music, and others learn obscure languages. It would be a very dull world if they didn't.

The thread title is a quote from a poem, not my opinion.

I have a handful of anthologies, and some volumes of poetry.

But I'm only occasionally drawn to them.

Poetry expresses sentiments in a deeper way than prose can. Language allows expression of ideas but formally structured language can be a hinderance and is thus limited. Any comparison of languages shows new ways of expressing ideas which are not found in other languages. This underlines the limitation of words.
Poetry tries to break down this limitation.

Mo dhearmad, a Aonghuis, ní raibh aithne agam ar an sliocht, faraor, ach tá muid rud beag cosúil lenár chéile, sílim, mar cé nach bhfuil an méid sin suime agamsa i bhfilíocht féin, tá cupla leabhar filíochta agam agus breathnaím orthu ó am go ham freisin.

Ar ndóigh, ní thusa a bhí ar intinn agam nuair a scríobh mé an dara teachtaireacht, ach duine a bhí ag cur droch-cháile amach ar fhilí gan chuntar ar bith.

How do you do a quote from someone in your own post??

Anyway,
Bearn, I had the same sentiments as you towards poetry until last year when I went back and did the Leaving Cert Higher Level in English. Ive developed a greater appreciation for poetry (and Shakespeare) siince then.
Think of the Beatles, Bob Dylan etc etc. All poets in their own right.

quote:

How do you do a quote from someone in your own post??

Mar seo - scríobh an méid seo leanas gan na spásanna

\ quote { an sliocht is mian leat tagairt a dhéanamh dó }

Féach freisin http://www.daltai.com/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/daltai/discus/discus.pl?pg=help (Help! ar chlé)

A Bhuachaill Rua & A Bhreandáin,

I'm not against poetry, as it is an art in itself, but it is clear to any sane person, that many poets are ㄹull to the brim with crap.

I was once in Sin É in Dublin and after some live music this tall lad in a long black jacket and a hat (whom I had tagged mentally as a potential poet) gets up on stage, announces that he has been to Conemara, and starts to recite some poems (all very dramatically). Having finished, he then (and I kid not) swings his long black coat like a cape and almost 'flies' out the door. Batman would be proud.

Oh, there is no doubt there are some hopeless poets out there, Bearn.

The worst I ever heard was "death poetry". We were waiting to have a session at a café in Brisbane and this grungey fellow with an electric bass guitar went on and on with this literally monotonous single note on the bass, speaking a long list of death-related words, also monotone, into a microphone. He must have gone for at least half an hour in his own little world. I doubt anyone was listening except to see when he'd finally finished.

Still, some of the stuff my students selected was quite nice. It is okay for a change every once in a blue moon.

A Bheirn, cé a mhún isteach id' bhrachán ar maidin inniu? Garmhac le Yeats?

You get pretentious people everywhere. Id have coiled over laughing if I seen Batman doing poetry on stage and running out the door. CLassic.

Mhún mé isteach mé féin!

An leigheas tíre de shaghas éigin atá i gceist ann?

Ba é an nós a bhíodh ag Gandhi cúpla bolgam dá chuid múin a ól chuile mhaidin. Leigheas Ayurvedach é sin, sílim. Is dócha go bhfuil níos mó faoi seo ar an idirlíon, má tá sibh fiosrach.