The taxman cometh!Gabriel Rosenstock translates and introduces a poem by George Mackay Brown The Marxist scholar George Thomson (1903–1987) was drawn to the culture and language of the Blasket Islands and had a warm friendship with one of its fine memoirists, Muiris Ó Súilleabháin. What Thomson saw among the Blasket Islanders was a civilisation that contained remnants of an older society, one that existed before the notion of private property came about, a community oblivious to the state and all its machinations. |
Fear Cánach | Taxman |
Seacht speal ina luí in aghaidh an bhalla. | Seven scythes leaned at the wall. |
Féasóg ar fhéasóg órga | Beard upon golden beard |
An t-ualach deireanacha eorna | The last barley load |
Ag longadán tríd an gclós. | Swayed through the yard. |
An corc á bhaint as buidéil leanna ag béithe. | The girls uncorked the ale. |
Fidil is cosa ag bogadh le chéile. | Fiddle and feet moved together. |
Ansin idir coinleach is fraoch | Then between stubble and heather |
Marcach ar séirse. | A horseman rode. |