The Language Issue - Núala Ní Dhomhnaill

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 the 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.

---

Núala Ní Dhomhnaill (born 1956) Ireland (born in England but moved to Ireland aged 6)

Translated by Paul Muldoon

Source: The Irish Page