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‘Dubh’ le Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill & ‘Black Milk’ le Miho Ohtsubo

Bliain um an dtaca seo, i mí na Nollag 2021, cuireadh Black Milk le Miho Ohtsubo, ealaíontóir Seapánach, ar taispeáint den chéad uair san Eoraip. Ba in Ionad Ealaíne na Gaillimhe a bhí an saothar coscrach corraitheach seo le feiceáil faoi choimirce an tionscadail taighde Republic of Conscience: Cearta an Duine agus Nuafhilíocht na hÉireann. Cén ceangal mar sin a bhí idir físealaín an tSeapánaigh mná agus an taighde atá ar siúl againne ar chearta an duine agus ar fhilíocht chomhaimseartha na hÉireann?

Miho Ohtsubo i nGaillimh, grianghraf le Joe O’Shaughnessy

Ba é an t-aistriúchán Seapáinise den dán Gaeilge ‘Dubh’ le Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill a spreag Ohtsubo an chéad lá. Cur síos duairc dóbrónach a fhaightear sa dán Gaeilge ar chorraí cráite an fhile ar thitim Srebrenica ar 11ú Iúil, 1995:

Is lá dubh é seo.
Tá an spéir dubh.
Tá an fharraige dubh.

Tá na gairdíní dubh.
Tá na crainn dubh.
Tá na cnoic dubh.
Tá na busanna dubh.
Tá na carranna a thugann na páistí ar scoil ar maidin dubh.

Tá na siopaí dubh.
Tá a bhfuinneoga dubh.
Tá na sráideanna dubh (is ní le daoine é).
Tá na nuachtáin a dhíolann an cailín dubh go bhfuil an folt láidir dubh uirthi
dubh dubh dubh. (Cead Aighnis: 15)

An tírdhreach uirbeach seo cois farraige a dtráchtar air sa dán, ní Srebrenica é. I bhfad ó láthair an chogaidh, tchítear do reacaire an dáin go bhfuil a ceantar féin faoi smúid agus faoi smál mar gheall ar a bhfuil ag titim amach sna Balcáin. Meabhraíonn comhbhá seo an dúlra an scéal meánaoiseach Aided Chonchobuir dúinn: tuigtear do Rí Concobar go bhfuil tubaiste i ndiaidh titim amach nuair a dhubhaíonn na dúile agus tarlaíonn urú gréine. Is ansin a bhristear an scéala leis faoi Chéasadh Chríost.

Ní haon léamh meafarach a rinne Miho Ohtsubo ar na línte seo, áfach, nó mheabhraigh an síorthrácht ar an dath dubh Tokyo a hóige féin di. Saolaíodh í sa bhliain 1945 agus chaith sí blianta a hóige i gcathair a raibh rian an chogaidh le tabhairt faoi deara ar fhoirgnimh scriosta, ar fhoirgnimh dhóite agus ar mheanman dubhach na muintire. B’fhéidir nach aon ionadh é dá réir sin go bhfuil Ohtsubo ar dhuine de na healaíontóirí clúiteacha a luaitear leis an ghluaiseacht frithchogaidh sa tSeapáin.

Is doiligh gan cuimhneamh ar an Ghorta Mhór nuair a leagtar súil ar na coirp thanaí thnáite (nó an corpáin iad?) atá suite síos agus gléasta in éadaí dubha sa taispeántas seo. Ar ndóigh tá tagairtí i ndán Ní Dhomhnaill féin don uafás seo i stair na hÉireann:

Tá na prátaí dubh.
Tá na turnapaí dubh.
Tá gach bileog cabáiste a chuirfeá síos i dtóin corcáin dubh.

Tá an sáspan dubh.

Tá an citeal dubh.

Tá gach tóin corcáin as seo go Poll Tí Liabáin dubh. (Cead Aighnis: 15)

‘Black Milk’ le Miho Ohtsubo, 2021

Cén bhaint atá ag an Ghorta Mhór le titim Srebenica, ámh, nó cén tábhacht atá leis an tagairt seo i ndán a cumadh i bhfreagra ar thitim na cathrach sin, mar a thugann an fotheideal le fios? An sampla é seo den rud a dtugann Allen Feldman ‘residual historical fragment’ air?* Is éard atá i gceist ag Feldman ná imeachtaí stairiúla a bhrúitear faoi chois nó a ndéantar beag is fiú díobh ar mhaithe le haghaidh a thabhairt go dásachtach, dóchasach ar an am atá le teacht. Imeachtaí iad seo, dar leis, a fhágann rian mar sin féin ar an am i láthair agus a chuireann dá mbonnaí insintí den stair a dhearbhaíonn gur gluaiseacht leanúnach i dtreo an dul chun cinn agus na nua-aimsearthachta atá inti. B’amhlaidh an scéal i gcás na hEorpa sna 1990idí. Ag ceann thoir na hEorpa bhí cogadh faoi lánseol sna Balcáin. Ag ceann thiar na hEorpa, in Éirinn, bhí caint mhór ar an bhrú faoi chois agus ar an ligean i ndearmad i gcás an Ghorta Mhóir agus an comóradh céad caoga bliain ag druidim linn. Ba bheag rian den chruatan ná den ghanntanas a bhí le tabhairt faoi deara in Éirinn na linne sin – tír choimhíoch ba ea an stair go dearfa, mar a mhaígh L.P. Hartley tráth. Níorbh é nárbh ann a thuilleadh do Pholl Tí Liabáin, áfach. Ní hea, níorbh ann ach gur dream eile a bhí á thaithí sna blianta sin. An drochthuar atá le braistint sa dán seo agus a threisítear san athrá a dhéantar ar an fhocal ‘dubh’ fríd síos, tháinig an drochthuar sin faoin tairngreacht. Mar seo a rinne Breitheamh Riad cur síos ar na huafáis ag an Bhinse Choiriúil Idirnáisiúnta don iar-Iúgslaiv i mí na Samhna 1995:

After Srebrenica fell to besieging Serbian forces in July 1995, a truly terrible massacre of the Muslim population appears to have taken place. The evidence tendered by the Prosecutor describes scenes of unimaginable savagery: thousands of men executed and buried in mass graves, men and women mutilated and slaughtered, children killed before their mothers’ eyes, a grandfather forced to eat the liver of his own grandson. These are truly scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history.**

Cé gur bhain an Breitheamh Riad úsáid as an fhocal ‘massacre’, dearbhaíodh ina dhiaidh sin gur ‘cinedhíothú’ a tharla i Srebrenica. Ó thaobh an dlí idirnáisiúnta de, tá tábhacht leis an idirdhealú seo, rud a pléadh sa bhreith a tugadh sa chás Prosecutor v Radislav Krstić sa bhliain 2004:

The gravity of genocide is reflected in the stringent requirements which must be satisfied before this conviction is imposed. (…) Where these requirements are satisfied, however, the law must not shy away from referring to the crime committed by its proper name. (…) The Appeals Chamber states unequivocally that the law condemns, in appropriate terms, the deep and lasting injury inflicted, and calls the massacre at Srebrenica by its proper name: genocide.***

Tharraing Miho Ohtsubo aird ar ghníomh an chinedhíothaithe nuair a roghnaigh sí an teideal ‘Black Milk’ dá taispeántas físealaíne. Sa dán ‘Todesfuge’ le Paul Celan, mórdhán canónda a shamhlaítear leis an Uileloscadh, tagraítear arís eile do ‘schwarze Milch’ (bainne dubh). An slabhra a chroch Ohtsubo ar chuid de na coirp, slabhra le clib miotail a raibh uimhir air, thug sé íospartaigh an Uileloiscthe chun cuimhne. I dtaca le Srebrenica de, ba é an gníomh aonair cinedhíothaithe ba mhó a thit amach ar thalamh na hEorpa ó aimsir an Dara Cogadh Domhanda i leith. Ó thaobh an dlí de, tá gaol gairid idir an dá eachtra, rud atá le tabhairt faoi deara i dtaispeántas Ohtsubo agus i ndán Ní Dhomhnaill.

Línte as ‘Dubh’ (Gaeilge, Béarla, Seapáinise)

Cé nach dtagraítear os ard don Uileloscadh sa dán ‘Dubh’, ó thaobh foirme de, tá mórán i bpáirt ag an dán le filíocht an Uileloiscthe. San alt ‘The Long and Short of Holocaust Verse’, deir Gubar:

The semantic panic inflicted by the Shoah led poets to deploy a dearth or surfeit of words in patently mediated texts that defy sequentiality by dramatizing how dispossessed their authors are of language. Marking an incapacity to achieve closure, torn from explanatory narratives, balked of the resolution or revelation of conventional lyric, very short and very long poems illuminate some of the properties of traumatized speech and of less startlingly curtailed or excessive reactions to calamitous crises in culture.****

D’fhéadfá cur síos Susan Gubar thuas a thagairt don dán ‘Dubh’ gona línte loma, fógracha, nach bhfuil iontach fileata, shílfeá, agus gona athrá ar an fhocal ‘dubh’. Is é ‘bán’ focal deiridh an dáin, áfach, focal a chuireann easpa datha, easpa torthúlachta, díomhaointeas agus foilmhe in iúl. Ar aon dul le mórchuid ceantar Gaeltachta i ndiaidh an Ghorta Mhóir, tá Srebrenica an lae úd (11 Iúil 1995), bán (nó bánaithe), dar le reacaire an dáin. Cé nach bhfuil bileog Ní Dhomhnaill féin bán, is léir ó éirim an dáin go bhfuil sí go mór in amhras faoi fhocail agus faoina gcumas léirscrios mar seo a chur in iúl nó a mhíniú:

Mar táimse dubh.
Tá mo chroí dubh
is m’intinn dubh.
Tá m’amharc ar feadh raon mo radhairc dubh.
Tá an dubh istigh is amuigh agam chughainn.

Mar gach píosa guail nó sméar nó airne,
gach deamhan nó diabhal nó daradaol,
gach cleite fiaigh mhara nó íochtar bhonn bróige,
gach uaimh nó cabha nó poll tóine
gach duibheagán doimhin a shlogann ár ndóchas,
táim dubh dubh dubh.

Mar tá Srebrenice, cathair an airgid,
‘Argentaria’ na Laidne,
bán. (Cead Aighnis: 16)

Foilsíodh alt cuimsitheach le Rióna Ní Fhrighil ar an dán ‘Dubh’ san iris idirnáisiúnta Law and Humanities (2022). Ar fáil anseo

Tagairtí

*Allen Feldman, 2004. ‘Memory Theatres, Virtual Witnessing, and the Trauma-Aesthetic’, Biography (27): 165

**Preasráiteas a d’eisigh an Binse Coiriúil Idirnáisiúnta don iar-Iúgslaiv (CC/PIO/026-E), An Hág,16 Samhain 1995. <https://www.icty.org/en/press/radovan-karadzic-and-ratko-mladic-accused-genocide-following-take-over-srebrenica> léadh 12 Samhain 2021.

*** Prosecutor v Radislav Krstić (Appeals Chamber Judgement) IT-98-33-A (19 Aibreán 2004) alt [37].

****Susan Gubar, 2004. ‘The Long and Short of Holocaust Verse’, New Literary History 35(3): 445.

Bunfhoinse

Ní Dhomhnaill, N., 1998. Cead Aighnis (An Sagart: An Daingean).

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Poetry in Translation 

What is the role of the poet-translator in an interconnected world?

This research strand investigates the political and the ethical aspects of the act of literary translation. How does literary translation by poets facilitate the circulation of ideas and the formation of conscience in a global context? Translated poems are included in this research as an important part of the Irish poet’s œuvre. This is a radical contestation of the view that literary translation is peripheral to the act of creative writing itself. Interesting examples of literary translations in a human rights context include:

  • The anthology Scar on the Stone: Contemporary Poetry from Bosnia (1998), published in the aftermath of the break-up of Yugoslavia, includes translations of Bosnian poetry into English by Irish poets such as Harry Clifton and Chris Agee, and into Irish and English by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill.
  • The anthology After Every War: Twentieth-Century Women Poets (2004), with English translations by Eavan Boland, contains the poems of German-speaking poets who witnessed the devastation of World War II. Boland, whose poetry is renowned for its exploration of lived female experience, chose to translate poems that foregrounded “private vulnerability” recorded by these female poets.
  • Guatánamo: Cimí an Champa a Chum (2008), a translation into Irish by Gabriel Rosenstock of Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak (2007), edited by Marc Falkoff, is a notable instance of Rosenstock’s commitment to cultural diversity and his questioning of the hegemony of Western values.
  • Pádraig Ó Máille’s translation into Irish of Cahier d’un retour au pays natal, by Afro-Carribean poet Aimé Césaire, was motivated by his interest in postcolonial identity. In his introduction to Nótaí ar fhilleadh ar mo thír dhúchais (2015), Ó Máille stresses the importance of Césaire’s literary text as impetus to explore the postcolonial mentality and its impact on Irish language, culture, and politics.
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English-language Poetry

How have Irish poets writing in English addressed human rights issues in our interconnected world?

This research strand focuses on how Irish poets, writing in the English language, have addressed international human rights questions and violations in their work since the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. It considers how the language of poetry can be employed to respond to specific conflicts, events, and challenges, which may take place at a considerable geographic distance.

Irish poets have increasingly recognized the role of media technologies and networks in transmitting news on specific events, and how the medium of poetry responds to the forms and rhetoric of news media, or the language of journalism. Information networks and digital platforms extend the scope and reach of both news reporting and poetry, but also raise issues related to political control, transnational power, and citizen agency.

In recent decades, advances in media technology have taken place alongside the growing environmental crisis and the escalation of climate change. The emergence of the posthumanist paradigm also informs a number of poems considering human rights alongside the rights of non-human life and vulnerable habitats supporting ecosystems as well as human communities. Such a change of perspective highlights the ethically problematic aspects of attempting to define the “human” or the “human person” as a distinct category.

Déan Cuardach | Search the Database →

Irish-language Poetry

What human rights violations do Irish-language poets address in their poetry?

This research strand focuses on how Irish poets, writing in the Irish language, have addressed international human rights questions and violations in their work. Our research shows that poets writing in Irish frequently engage with international issues of import. This challenges the conventional perception of Irish-language poetry as focusing on the language itself and on its increasing minoritization. For instance, poets writing in the Irish language in the twentieth and twenty-first century have addressed such varied issues as:

Chosen examples:

  • The suffering of those affected by nuclear bombings or incidents in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Chernobyl: ‘Aifreann na Marbh’ (Eoghan Ó Tuairisc); ‘Gaoth Anoir’ (Conleth Ellis); ‘Picnic i Reilig sa Bhílearúis’ (Celia de Fréine); ‘Chernobyl’ (Claire Dagger)
  • The implications of torture and incarceration, especially during the War on Terror: ‘Torquemada agus Sinne’ (Alan Titley); ‘Baghdad 2004’ (Declan Collinge); ‘An Ré Niamhrach’ (Eithne Strong); ‘Sceon, Tost, Seachantacht’ (Seán Ó Leocháin)
  • The minoritization of First Nation peoples in North America: ‘Bundúchas’ (Liam Ó Muirthile); ‘Damhsa na dTaibhsí’ (Séamus Ó hUltacháin); ‘Laoi an Indiaigh Dhíbeartha’ (Gabriel Rosenstock); ‘Nawak’osis’ (Dairena Ní Chinnéide)
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