James Stephens

“ I'd ram thy lamentation down thy neck.
THE LAND OF FÁL
If all must suffer equally, and pay
In equal share for that sin wrought by Eve,
O Thou, if Thou wilt deign to answer, say:
Why are the poor tormented? why made grieve
The innocent? why are the free enslaved? ”

“ One side only, and that the least, is shown, for a greater pen than mine would be necessary if that tornado of rage, eloquence, and humour were to be presented; but the poems which I give might almost be taken as translations of one side of his terrific muse.
As regards Egan O'Rahilly a similar remark is necessary. No pen and no language but his own could even distantly indicate a skill and melody which might be spoken of as one of the wonders of the world. I have done exactly as I pleased with his material. ”

“ In two of the poems which I tried to translate from Raftery I have completely failed. Against one of them I broke an hundred pens in vain; and in the other, "The County Mayo," I have been so close to success and so far from succeeding that I may mourn a little about it. The first three verses are not bad, but the last verse is the completest miss: the simplicity of the original is there, its music is not, and in the last two lines the poignance, which should come on the reader as though a hand gripped at his heart, is absent. ”

“ From Antoine O'Raftery I have taken more than from any of the others, and have in nearly every instance treated his matter so familiarly that a lover of Raftery (and who, having read a verse of his, does not love him?) might not know I was indebted to this poet for my songs. His work is different from that of Keating, O'Rahilly, or O'Bruadair, for these were learned men, and were writing out of a tradition so hoary with age and so complicated in convention that only learned and subtle minds could attempt it. I have wondered would Keating or O'Rahilly have been very scornful of Raftery's work? ”

“ This book ought to be called Loot or Plunder or Pieces of Eight or Treasure-Trove, or some name which would indicate and get away from its source, for although everything in it can be referred to the Irish of from one hundred to three hundred years ago the word translation would be a misdescription. There are really only two translations in it, Keating's "O Woman full of Wiliness" and Raftery's "County Mayo." Some of the poems owe no more than a phrase, a line, half a line, to the Irish, and around these scraps I have blown a bubble of verse and made my poem. ”

“ If I asked her master he'd give me a cask a day;
But she, with the beer at hand, not a gill would arrange!
May she marry a ghost and bear him a kitten, and may
The High King of Glory permit her to get the mange. ”

“ Nancy Walsh do. The Red Man's Wife do. Nancy Walsh do. Anthony O'Daly do. Mary Ruane do. William O'Kelly do. Sean O'Cosgair do. The County Mayo do. Eileen, Diarmuid and Teig (After O'Rahilly) Honoro Butler and Lord Kenmare do. Clann Cartie do. The Land Of Fál (Anon.) Inis Fál (after O'Rahilly) Owen O'Néill (after Pierce Ferriter) Egan O'Rahilly (after O'Rahilly) Righteous Anger (after O'Bruadair) The Weavers do. Odell do. The Apology do. The Gang do. The Geraldine's Cloak do. Skim-Milk do. Blue Blood do. O'Bruaidar do. Note
GEOFFREY KEATING O woman full of wiliness! ”