LISTEN TO THE RIVER SPEAK
by Seán Ó Ríordáin
Translation by Diarmuid Johnson
We went walking by night
A woman and three men
And the river spoke to itself incessantly
And though there was much I could not grasp
I knew it was utterly sincere
And I knew not a drop of what it said was conceit
But the lucid dialogue proper to water.
But again and again
I set incoherence spinning through the night,
And with empty words
Like a bright mask worn falsely
Over the soul’s face
I deceived two of my companions
Hiding raw wounds from them
Keeping the ache to myself.
But now that I am alone
Let my soul be bare and unclothed
And I will speak true to myself
As the unconceited river spoke
When it raised a poem to mountains
With its great flood
When it resisted musical heresy
And sang nothing but the essence of water.
[http://www.transcript-review.org/en/issue/transcript-4-bilingual-worlds/sean-o-riordain/listen-to-the-river-speak-by-sean-o-riordain]