nuala ni dhomhnaill

i'll put this here as a pendant to maragaret atwood's poem on language

The Language Issue

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 bullrushes 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 Phaoraoh's daughter.

trans Paul Muldoon