Amhráin Amhairgin, An Chailleach Bhéarra, Amhra Choilm Chille

Amhráin Amhairgin, An Chailleach Bhéarra, Amhra Choilm Chille - Three Early Irish Poems in Modern Irish versions.

Don té a bheadh ag iarraidh dul amach ar shaothar Máire Mhac an tSaoi, tá fianaise bhreise sa leabhar seo ar an acmhain diamhair teangan agus samhlaíochta atá
le brath ó thosach deireadh a cuid scribhneoireachta. Tá údarás agus uaisleacht in uachtar sna dánta seo mar atá sa chuid is fearr dá cuid dánta féin, an teanga á feacadh agus á lúbadh i gcúrsai friotail agus comhréire agus í ag cruthú uair amháin eile gur uirlis lánacmhainneach i don té atá inniúil ar í a ionramháil mar is cóir. Más beag duine a bhí, nó atá, chomh hábalta léi sa mhéid sin, tá cúis eile again a bheith buíoch go raibh Máire Mhac an tSaoi ag obair chomh fada is chomh flaithiúil sin inár measc.

For anyone interested in Máire Mhac an tSaoi’s collected work, this book offers further evidence of the formidable authority of language and imagination that are signature features of all her writing in Irish.

There is a degree of linguistic and cultural conviction in these texts, Amhráin Amhairgin, An Chailleach Bhéarra, Amhra Choilm Cille, and an aristocratic sensibility that is also characteristic of the best of her own poetry. As in her original work, the vocabulary and syntax of Irish are manipulated with remarkable dexterity in these readings of Early Irish poetry, demonstrating once again that the language is entirely adequate to whatever demands are made of it by a writer sufficiently adept at deploying its undiminished resources. If very few writers have, or had, the same virtuosity in that regard as she had, we have yet another reason to be grateful to Máire Mhac an tSaoi for her lifelong commitment to a language and tradition whose strength and dignity continue to speak to us in her work.