Aogán ó Rathaille

[seafoid]

That article on the first post includes this which I thought was fascinating

For more than forty years I have travelled the world as a diplomat or businessman. Ó Rathaille's greater poems recited aloud inside my head, and quite often "outside", have more than any other literary resource, however cherished – even more than Joyce or Shakespeare – helped sustain my days and nights. Poetry recited in one language is notoriously opaque even as an oral experience to those who do not understand it; to my surprise I have found that the unique phonetic intricacies of "Gile na Gile" recited slowly aloud have fascinated Brazilians, Colombian, French or even American listeners. How much richer that experience is when enhanced by the poem's complex and profound intelligibilities! How sad it is, how deplorable, that our educational system does not make the endless variety and the thrilling power of this feat of native genius more accessible to today's seventeen-year-olds.