[HN Gopher] The Example of Seamus Heaney
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The Example of Seamus Heaney
Author : lermontov
Score : 44 points
Date : 2023-11-02 04:23 UTC (18 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (hudsonreview.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (hudsonreview.com)
| billfruit wrote:
| How does his work compare for example with that of John Betjeman?
| OfSanguineFire wrote:
| You can readily read it and decide for yourself. Besides the
| fact that various popular poems by Heaney are spread over the
| web, his collected works (or nearly so) are held by LibGen and
| Anna's Archive.
| starkparker wrote:
| I'd also vouch for his translation of Beowulf, which is one
| of the modern great translations of a work. The Translations
| of Seamus Heaney book also provides some fantastic context
| for how his translation work and own writings informed each
| other.
| qohen wrote:
| YouTube has Heaney reading his Beowulf translation (in 2
| parts[0][1]) -- given that Beowulf was an oral epic, you
| may want to check it out.
|
| If you want your own copy, Audible has it[2] -- it's about
| $15 (but they also have a free trial and occasionally
| Amazon offers a free download from them) -- note that
| according to some comments, even though it's over 2 hours,
| it's abridged.
|
| And, of course, there's the printed version[3] -- it's
| actually bilingual. $12.76 in print, $1.99 on Kindle.
|
| [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaB0trCztM0
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsxxg5P-DnY
|
| [2] https://www.audible.com/pd/Beowulf-Audiobook/B002V5CVPY
|
| [3] https://www.amazon.com/Beowulf-New-Verse-Translation-
| Bilingu...
| OfSanguineFire wrote:
| One thing that baffles me, as someone from outside Ireland, is
| the political meaning ascribed to Heaney's move in the mid 1970s
| from Belfast to Dublin when he took up an academic position
| there. I've seen several people suggest that that move in and of
| itself meant that Heaney was "taking a side" in the Troubles. The
| poet himself never made any overt statement to the fact, and yet
| we're told the move itself spoke volumes.
| foobarxyzzy wrote:
| Its like Israel:Palestine, or any number of other conflicts -
| there is zero middle ground permitted.
| biorach wrote:
| That's not true
| Supernaut wrote:
| I am acquainted with a number of people who in childhood came
| south with their parents. These families were not making a
| political statement; they simply did not wish to be murdered.
| biorach wrote:
| Who said this?
| stg22 wrote:
| I don't think that's a common interpretation of the move.
|
| Heaney spent a year as a guest lecturer in UC Berkeley in
| 1970-'71 and realised there that his daily life in Northern
| Ireland had become dominated by the Troubles to an extent that
| was harming his development as a writer.
|
| After that, he moved south of the border and spent 4 productive
| years as a full-time writer in Wicklow (a rural county south of
| Dublin and quite far from the conflict). He called his time in
| Wicklow a "retreat" in the religious sense of the word,
| emphasizing how it was about getting away from the world. Then,
| from 1976, he started taking academic jobs outside of Northern
| Ireland, first in Dublin and then in America.
|
| Since long before he left Northern Ireland, he'd have been
| considered a prominent Nationalist by both sides, so the move
| south should have seemed more like opting out of the conflict
| than taking a side in it.
| foobarxyzzy wrote:
| i have believed for some time now that this site is kind of like
| the hats in Westworld - a way of reading tech peoples thoughts so
| that the site's VC owner can use them in some nefarious way.
|
| Anyhow, I'm coming in here to say that this is a nice little
| article about an Irish poet. However, by adding this comment, how
| will my contribution be interpreted by the algorithm. Will I be
| targeted in some way?
| not_your_mentat wrote:
| My inner tinfoil hat wearer has long suspected that the old
| timey ui choices are meant to reinforce a sense of low tech
| safety. I'm a political centrist from a country that isn't the
| United States, and probability is enough for me to prevent me
| from speaking and sharing freely online, especially on a
| platform owned by a tech company.
|
| I like humans. Humans are creative and capable and resourceful
| and dangerous. Humans are fundamentally tribal. Human problems
| are wildly difficult to solve well (especially the dangerous
| tribal ones). I'll keep making and sharing food with my
| neighbors and peaceably slinging code and I'd love it if you
| joined me, even if we can't stand each other. I don't have any
| grand designs for world peace, but I can do this one little
| thing. It sure makes me less inclined toward walls and wars
| when someone brings me soup.
| bloomingeek wrote:
| This is a very nice post. I've always told my kids, all grown
| now, that human beings could mess up a one car funeral. Our
| goal should be to not purposely do the messing. I have very
| firm convictions, such as law and order, but I realize that
| what I believe and live isn't an option for others. So, live
| and let live.
|
| I also understand that I am flawed, and knowing this, how can
| I expect others to be perfect? I must admit, nerdy tech,
| books and music have always helped me to de-stress from
| contact with other humans.
| poetnotme wrote:
| Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a
| gun.
|
| Under my window, a clean rasping sound When the spade sinks into
| gravelly ground: My father, digging. I look down
|
| Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds Bends low, comes up
| twenty years away Stooping in rhythm through potato drills Where
| he was digging.
|
| The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft Against the inside
| knee was levered firmly. He rooted out tall tops, buried the
| bright edge deep To scatter new potatoes that we picked, Loving
| their cool hardness in our hands.
|
| By God, the old man could handle a spade. Just like his old man.
|
| My grandfather cut more turf in a day Than any other man on
| Toner's bog. Once I carried him milk in a bottle Corked sloppily
| with paper. He straightened up To drink it, then fell to right
| away Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods Over his shoulder,
| going down and down For the good turf. Digging.
|
| The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap Of soggy
| peat, the curt cuts of an edge Through living roots awaken in my
| head. But I've no spade to follow men like them.
|
| Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests. I'll dig with
| it.
| qohen wrote:
| A video of Heaney reading this poem:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNRkPU1LSUg
|
| (FYI, there are many videos of him reading his work on YouTube.
| Given that poetry is meant to be recited, and given that he had
| a good voice for doing so, you may find such videos rewarding).
| gregfjohnson wrote:
| In this comment thread there are some lovely reflections on human
| nature, how it manifests in technology development, etc. I had a
| thought recently, and this might be a place to share it that
| others might enjoy.
|
| Pair programming is like nuclear fusion. There is the force of
| electromagnetism that causes nuclei to repel each other. Natural
| social awkwardness, fragile egos, conflict aversion and other
| similar issues cause programmers to resist pairing. Under the
| right conditions of heat and pressure the electro-magnetic force
| can be overcome, nuclei get close enough to each other, the
| strong nuclear force takes over, and the nuclei fuse. For
| programmers, when pairing starts to work well, a sort of flow
| state can emerge involving multiple people. Ideas start to spark
| back and forth, idea ignition happens, and somehow the
| collaboration goes to a new place that would have been entirely
| inaccessible to each person individually.
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