Sáirséal agus Dill

Transcription

The book "Dúil" is one of the best ... and well written and most artistic Irish language books written, I think, in the twentieth century ... for this very simple reason: the stories are very pointed, very artistic, very well written and they add to the story continuously. The advice that Liam Ó Flaithearta used to have for other writers, for Máirtín Ó Cadhain in particular, for example, was to cut down on the writing, to strip it, to peel back the skin of the story ... until only heart of the story would be left. And no there's doubt that he succeeds in doing that in the book "Dúil". And "Dúil" is the title of the book, "Dúil" is the first story in the book ... and it's the word or the thought or the concept "dúil" (desire) that ties the whole book together. That basic, strong desire that people have in their lives, in the first place, and we see people being born ... we see this individuative process of people maturing ... step by step, bit by bit, from when he leaves the womb until his dying day. Jung used to speak of this psychologically ... and Ó Flaithearta gauges this, before Jung's work was even available in English in Ireland, not to mention other places, instinctively in a way. And he does that, as I say, in the story "Dúil" with the little child inside in the room trying to make his way out towards the sun ... another step on the road of life which will continue on until, as I say, the person's dying day. We see another aspect of desire, desire in life, the desire in the continuing on, as you'd say, continuity in life. We see that with the animals, we see that with the birds and we see that even in the stories about mothers giving birth as well. We see it in the story "Bás na Bó" too, for example ... that fierce connection that the mother has with the child and that illustrates the force of desire, that instinct which keeps a person alive all the time. We see, therefore, desire in life, desire in motherhood and desire in reproduction going on from generation to generation, from person to person to the end of life, as you'd say. "Dúil" is one of the Irish language books, or, indeed one of the books, about which you could say there's a complete unity within the collection. And the themes in the book are intertwined with each other throughout the stories, from story to story ... and throughout the stories as a unit in the book and I believe that this, along with his continuous writing style in the book, are the things of most significance. He had two periods of Irish language writing: one at the end of the twenties ... when the newly-founded stated was going about its work, when the dream of the revival was to be realised ... when it was thought that Ireland would not only be free and "Irish", but ... and so on, Pádraig Pearse's dream ... but he became despondent, I think, when he saw, as you'd say, the state that was there before him. After that, after World War 2 when Brendán Ó hEithir was editor of the magazine Comhar ... and when Sáirséal agus Dill, Seán Sáirséal Ó hÉigeartaigh, were publishing new literature – the likes of Máirtín Ó Cadhain and Seán Ó Ríordáin and so on – Ó Flaithearta had hope again, maybe, in Irish and he wrote some stories that were published in Comhar for the most part ... and the stories from the first period and the second period were put together in 1953 when the book "Dúil" was published. And, maybe, it's the best statement of creativity in short story writing that we have in Irish. In a way, Liam Ó Flaithearta was made up of two people: the person who wrote the short stories, who's lyrical in a lot of ways ... and the person who wrote the novels, who's dark and deep, and nearly Russian. In a way you'd think that it wasn't the same person who wrote the two kinds of story. It's hard to guage accurately one writer's influence on another. There's no doubt about it, any writer worth anything from the generation after Ó Flaithearta would have read "Dúil" . There's no doubt that this was a pioneering book ... and, at the same time, that bare writing style hasn't been sustained by any writer, in a way ... of the next generation, in the forties, the fifties or even up to our own time. Maybe you could say it about the likes of Pádraic Breathnach ... who describes nature very well ... and you see that communion between people and nature in some of his stories .. but there are very few others about which you could say the same thing. Nature is central, strange enough. Edward Garnett in England, in London, said to him at the start of the century ... not to write about the city, about things he knows nothing about, but to return to nature ... and that severe kind of countryside can be seen in a lot of the stories. As well as that, the person and the animal are part of the collectiveness ... and as a part of nature in the stories. In a way, they're part of one another, all of them demonstrating this theme of "desire" that runs though the whole book. I love almost every story in the book "Dúil", I have to say ... and it's hard to choose one over the over. But, if it came to that, I'd choose the story "Teangmháil" ... because of the humanity in the story ... because of the way the person is expressed in his environment. And we were talking about nature earlier, that we see the girl at the beginning of the story, riding the horse, in terms of nature ... and that we see the horse in terms of nature and so on. But, maybe that's cold, and Ó Flaithearta can be cold. But then, throughout the story, we see - I won't call it love - but the fondness between the young couple ... and the father stops this fondness because he wants to arrange a marriage (make a match) ... and the dissatisfaction that's seen on the girl's face, even through her words ... when she finally understands that they have sold her, like a piglet. "My deal is made." - and she understands it can't be changed, that there's no going back on the deal the father has made.