The Seafarer
I came across this Anglo-Saxon text when reading about curlews for a poem I was working on. It features the lines:
Whiles the swan’s song
Had I for
pleasure; 20
Gannet’s clamour,
Curlew’s crying,
For men’s laughter;
The mew’s singing
For mead-drinking. It is not a cheery tale but fascinating as an insight to the attitudes of people at that time - a life of hardship and struggle for most led them to cling to beliefs about the afterlife. Of course, there is much scholarly debate as to the meaning and authorship (one writer or more?) of the poem but I suggest you read it and decide for yourself.
http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/English/Seafarer.htm
This link gives a translation by A.S. Kline which I particularly like.
Here's a sample:
This he knows not,
The well-found warrior,
What some must endure,
Who, wretched outcasts,
Widest must wander.
For now my heart writhes
Out of my breast,
My mind’s gone
Mid mere-flood,
Over the whale’s path, 60
Widely wandering
All earth’s corners.
Comes oft to me
Greedy and eager,
Lone-flyer screeching
Whets for the whale-road
The heart unwearied,
Over the sea’s hold.
There is also a famous translation by Ezra Pound and many others are available. You can find all this and more on Wikipedia and other free sites.
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We have all had a difficult winter with exceptionally challenging weather, even by British standards. Our local seafarers are more likely to be chasing oil than fish at this time of year but they have had a hard time getting on and off rigs. In this corner of north east Scotland we have been let off lightly apart from one huge tidal surge on December 4th that caused a great deal of damage around the coast.
Something brighter then -
on 27th February there was an especially vivid aurora borealis over much of the country and some amazing photos were taken. This one was taken at Portknockie just a few miles from here in Gardenstown. The rock is known as The Bowfiddle.
I did eventually emerge from reading about curlews and enjoyed putting a poem together.
The Crying Lone Flyer
Sally
Givertz
Had
I for pleasure;
Gannets
clamour,
Curlew’s
crying
For
men’s laughter;
(From “The Seafarer” translated by A.S. Kline)
The poem is as hard to pin down
As this bird with many voices:
The low whaup
The bubbling, rippling song
The plaintive curlee
The sound decorates my days
Lifts me from my chores
It flies overhead
It cries from the shore
Crying and flying
The magical in the mundane
Why this bird?
This elongated fowl in motley
With long wader’s legs
And unspecialised
feet
The long curved bill
(pink underneath)
Delicate enough to tease
Tiny invertebrates
from damp sand
Tough enough
to dismember a crab
Numenius
arquata
A speckled beauty
Or a folk-loric hob-goblin
Flying about in the
Grey
dark of evening
Calling its eerie curlee
A lonely cry, a bubbling song,
A gregarious but wary bird
The stuff of sentimental memoir
And ancient art
Expressing the souls of men
It is now March and we are especially grateful to see the signs of spring this year after such a wet and seemingly endless winter. This area is particularly rich in snowdrops.
Next post
April after I come back from travels to both Edinburgh and Aberdeen and hope to share words and pictures relating to the Scottish artists featured in the local galleries.
Sally Givertz
Gardenstown
Scotland
