"Ceist na Teangan" le Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill

Is maith liom an rann seo ar feadh breis agus fiche bliain. Scríobhann Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill faoi an chuinniúnt na Gaeilge. Cuireann sí an dán na teanga i gcompairáid leis an cliabhán na Mhaoise síos an abhainn Níl.

Rugadh sí i Sír Lanchain i sa bhlian 1952. Mar sin féin, chuir a tuismeitheoirí sísean féin nuair go raibh ach cúig bliana d'aois go Gaeltacht Corca Dhuibhne i gContae Chiarraí. Chónaigh Nuala lena haintín aici ann.

Chuaigh an cailín ansiúd mar sin go deisithe slán aici faoin tuatha. Ar ndóigh, d'fhoglaim Nuala Gaeilge ansin. Bhí cainteoir líofa go tapaidh.

De réir an alt fúithi le Vicipeid, "Nuair a d'fhág sí Corca Duibhne chun dul go dtí an tAonach ar dtús bhí ionadh uirthi go raibh teanga eile, seachas an Ghaelainn, á labhairt. Uair amháin labhair banaltra san ospidéal Béarla léi agus d'fhiafraigh sise dá hathair: 'Cad ina thaobh go bhfuil sí seo ag labhairt Béarla liomsa? Nach í seo Éire?'"

Inniu, tá sí ar tósach i measc fílí i Gaeilge. B'fhéidir, mbeidh sí a beidh ina dhá páirt léi anois. Ceapaim go raibh sí iníon bhFáro, mar éiríonn síos an teanga nua ina a láimhe go láidir. Measaim go mbeadh sí deirfiúr Mhaoise, mar cuireann suas an teanga sean go socair.

"Ceist na Teangan" le/by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill

Cuirim mo dhóchas ar snamh
i mbáidin teangan
faoi mar a leagfá naíonán
i gcliabhán
a bheadh fite fuaite
de dhuilleoga feileastraim
is bitiúman agus pic
bheith cuimilte lena thóin.

ansan é a leagadh sios
i measc na ngioicach
is coigeal na mban sí
le taobh na habhann,
féachaint n'fheadaraís
a dtabharfaidh an sruth é,
féachaint, dála Mhaoise,
an bhfóirfidh iníon Fhorainn?

This verse has pleased me during a period of more than twenty years. Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill writes about the fate of Irish. She puts in a poem of the language a comparison with the basket of Moses down the river Nile.

She was born in Lancashire in the year 1952. All the same, her parents sent herself when when she was but five years of age to the Corca Dhuibhne Irish-speaking region in Co. Kerry. Nuala lived with her auntie there.

The girl went over there since she repaired her health in the countryside. Naturally, Nuala learned Irish there. She became a fluent speaker rapidly.

According to the article on her in [the Irish-language] Wikipedia, "When she left Corca Dhuibhne, she came to a Spring Fair to start her new place in another language, rather than Irish, to speak. One time a nurse at a hospital spoke to her in English and she asked her father: 'What side was she on speaking English to her? Was this not Ireland?'"

Today, she leads the field of poets in Irish. Perhaps, she may play two roles within herself now. I think she may be the daughter of Pharaoh, for she lifts up the new language in her arms strongly. I reckon she might be the sister of Moses, for she sets down the old language softly.

"The Language Issue" (tr. Paul Muldoon)

I place my hope on the water
in this little boat
of the language, the way a body might put
an infant

in a basket of intertwined
iris leaves,
its underside proofed
with bitumen and pitch,

then set the whole thing down amidst
the sedge
and bulrushes by the edge
of a river

only to have it borne hither and thither,
not knowing where it might end up;
in the lap, perhaps,
of some Pharaoh’s daughter.

P.S. Plé Miceal Ó Mordha a saoirse iar-ciolíneacht agus feimini/ Michael Murray, in "Some Thoughts on the Poetry of Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill," emphasizes her post-colonial and feminist liberation; Tagann Beverly Parayno a beathnaisnéis i mbeagán focal/ Beverly Parayno, in a "Poetry International Web" entry, offers her brief biography.

(Léiriúchán/illustration: "An Cuireadh Mhaoise/The Finding of Moses," 1862, Frederick Goodall.)