Saturday, August 31, 2013

Seamus Heaney, RIP

Ireland's poet Seamus Heaney, has died.

His works include the 1966 debut "Death of a Naturalist", "The Spirit Level", "District and Circle" and an acclaimed translation of the old English epic poem "Beowulf".

"For us, Seamus Heaney was the keeper of language, our codes, our essence as a people," Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said. "He belongs with Joyce, Yeats, Shaw and Beckett in the pantheon of our greatest literary exponents."

Heaney was a rarity among poets, having won acclaim from critics while producing best-sellers. Born on a farm in Mossbawn, County Londonderry in Northern Ireland in 1939, his poems nostalgically recall the sights and smells of a country childhood.

although ethnically a Northen Irishman, he moved to the Irish Republic...

His translation of Beowulf is on youtube (until the copyright police find it):

Link1  Link2

and his Nobel Lecture is here.

And then there is this:


watch the whole thing if you can.





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