Poetry Friday

NOTE: I AM CHANGING THE DATE TO SATURDAY BECAUSE OF SOME LATE ADDITIONS; IF YOU'VE READ THIS ALREADY, THEY ARE AT THE END.

Well, I've been trying to determine if this translation of Liadin and Curither by Kuno Meyer is out of copyright or not. I believe I'm safe to post it in its entirety. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Online sources (because I like to cite my sources, whether it's book, newspaper or blog) include: Liadain and Curithir: an Irish love-story of the ninth century (CELT Corpus of Electronic Texts) and a Google Book of the same text. Scroll down to about page 25 to find this particular section. A slightly different version appears at the Celtic Literature Collective.

Joyless
The bargain I have made!
The heart of him I loved I wrung.

'Twas madness
Not to do his pleasure,
Were there not the fear of the King of Heaven.

'Twas a trifle
That wrung Curither's heart against me:
To him great was my gentleness.

I am Liadin
That loved Curither:
It is true as they say.

A short while I was
In the company of Curither:
Sweet was my intimacy with him.

The music of the forest
Would sing to me when with Curither,
Together with the voice of the purple sea.

Would that
Nothing of all I have done
Had wrung his heart against me!

Conceal it not!
He was my heart's love.
Whatever else I might love.

A roaring flame
He dissolved this heart of mine,
Without him for certain it cannot live.

Now, onto Poetry Friday.

First, a little background: Kelly of Big A little a started Poetry Friday last year about this time. It's no big secret; Friday? Poetry. Blog? Post. Share. Susan at Chicken Spaghetti has a more detailed explanation. Also check out Passionately Curious, who talks about blogs and copyright.

The only thing I'll add is regarding the round-up, which started, as most things with kidlit blogs do, entirely randomly and without order as those posting liked to list those participating because -- and this may be hard to believe -- it isn't easy keeping up with blogs and blog post, and new blogs, and what is happening, and the like. So, sometimes? It's nice for a link or two or three to see what's going on; and I think we all know that as helpful as the various search engines are, they aren't perfect to find what we want. A few of us informally rotate who posts the round up so that we aren't duplicating efforts. How do we decide this? By who is going to be around, who volunteers, who starts. For example, this morning I said, hey, I can do it after work!

And those of you in New Jersey know just how delightful that ride how was.

Anyhow. Here is the round up. If I missed you, post in the comments; and "you" means the person reading this. I also make an effort to search with technorati and bloglines.

Big A little a counts on Languages by Carl Sandburg. Excellent choice, as always.

Bildungsroman/ Little Willow shares The Plumpuppets by Christopher Morley (Fairies and literacy and pillows, oh my!)

Blue Rose Girls reach for the stars with a plethora of poetry about comets, the stars, the Moon, and other stuff up in the sky. (Stuff. It's a technical term. Astrologists and astronomists use it all the time.)

A warm welcome to Bri Meets Books, who debuts with Break by Dorianne Laux

Charlotte's Library (we really must talk about how Charlotte has my dream profession) has Naming the Parts by Reed

HipWriterMama inspires with A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (and at this point I have to say thank you for using the i-word in your blog because I'm starting to run out of new words to use to say who has what on their blog.)

kiddielit makes me laugh with The Library as an Erotic Oasis (and oh, how I needed a good laugh today!)

lectitans posts A Valediction Forbidding Mourning by John Donne (...OK, I'm back, but wow, I'm sure I read this in college, but I don't remember it, and just got lost in reading it and thinking... but you all are waiting eagerly, so I'll stop indulging.)

The Miss Rumphius Effect blows us away with poems about wind and kites (Reading poems about wind as the wind howls outside is very cool.)

St. Patrick's Breastplate is at Mitali's Fire Escape (no, silly, it's a poem! Tho imagining armor on a fire escape is going to inspire someone to write an interesting bit of urban fantasy.)

Passionately Curious puts me in a much better mood (it's been a horrid few days) and lifts my spirits with Prayer by Sheree Fitch

Readathon reviews two books in verse (ooh, Ludie's Life looks really good, and the joy of a book in verse is it's a quick read with a lot of meat.)

Scholar's Blog celebrates St. Patrick's Day with Yeats and Seamus Heaney (Have I mentioned yet on the blog that Yeats is my favorite poet? No?)

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast profiles Bob Barner's Penguins, Penguins Everywhere (look out, there's one behind you!)

What [Does] Adrienne Think About That? The answer is Seasonal Affective Disorder

Spring has sprung (or at least spring poems have!) at whimsy, who either is eternally optimistic or doesn't live in New Jersey

Wordy Girls illustrate how you can have more than one favorite with Janet Wong's Night Garden (bonus is the photo of the lovely illustrations by Julie Paschkis)

writing and ruminating wanders by with Yeats (is it possible to have a poetry boyfriend? cause he's mine.)

a wrung sponge recalls college days and Yeats (I adore him, adore him, adore him.)

A Year of Reading indulges in caffeine in my favorite forms: tea, coffee, chocolate. (and welcome back; if I wasn't tired before reading your post, I would be now. Hhmmm...is it possible to blog and eat a brownie?)

OK, that's it for those on the comments. I'll post and look for more, and revise this post as needed. Stay warm and safe.

Edited to add:

A Fuse # 8 Production raises a glass to weddings and St. Patrick's Day with Our Third Wedding Reception This Year Hits Its Stride

and Gotta Book with some Seuss

and Jane Yolen's original poem begins "Grammar Rules / defeat me." I know the feeling.

and Chicken Spaghetti must have thought, "what can I do to make Liz smile? Snow already shared the erotic library poem... I know! Let's highlight a poet who used to be a lawyer."

And still more!!

Here In the Bonny Glen joins in with Letters From a Father

Farm School has not one, but two, posts: a unicorn poem (don't tell Justine) and a new resource

Poetry for Children brings us into modern times with contemporary Irish poetry for children

And this just in from Journey Woman, who first had to drive thru the horrible weather and then had to contend with blogger deciding to act up: a mini round up of Irish poets, including my man Yeats

And there's always room for one more:

Biblio File shares an original haiku (another DC area blogger! Keep your eyes open for when we figure out how the heck we are going to co-ordinate an ALA real life get together... which is open to all)

The rumors are true -- Poetry Friday is here today! But I am at work until 5, so leave your name & link in the comments, and when I get home I'll revise this to include you all, as well as my own contributions.

Safe driving!