"Certainly the work of both poets has much in common: sensuality, wit, irreverence and a delight in lore, legend (particularly local legend) and linguistic dexterity. And these exuberant poems filter a modern suburban existence through the beguiling miasma of a more ancient Ireland.... What Muldoon calls in one poem 'the monsters of the imagination, the demons of the air,' dart through the book like sly witches on a wild night. The poems often read like spells set to invigorate and intrigue." The Sunday Tribune

4. An Chéad Amharc

I Zeppelin a bhíos
nuair a fuaireas mo chéad amharc
ar an oileán,
is mé i mo luí i leaba ospidéil
go mór faoi thionchar drugaí suain.

Do sheolamair os a chionn in airde
is d’fhéach síos ar an bhféar glas
a bhí ag teacht go glúine ar na beithígh ann
is é lán suas d’ollmhaitheas.

Chonaiceamair leagan amach na bhfeirmeacha
is suíomh na mbailtí
is tháinig na hoileánaigh amach chugainn I naomhóga
ag fáiltiú romhainn le gach saghas bídh.

Tá an t-oileán lán de bhláthanna
is de chnónna aduaine
agus is féidir leis bogadh leis ar fuaid na cruinne
ós na tíortha teo suas go dtí na farraigí fuara.

4. First Sight (from The Voyage)

I was lying in a hospital bed
spaced out on Valium
when I first caught sight
of the island from my Zeppelin.

As we drifted over
I could make out the cattle
up to their knees in clover
and hay good enough to bottle.

As we studied the patchwork
of farms and village streets
the islanders came out in currachs
with their arms full of treats.

This island has flowers and plants
and exotic nuts galore
and moves swiftly about the planet
from Alaska to the Azores.

translated by Paul Muldoon

$10.95 paperback
ISBN 0-916390-54-3
ISBN13 978-0-916390-54-9

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