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Thomas McCarthy

I heard the Cuckoo

  • 1 The Land is not settled | Translations: de
  • 2 I heard the Cuckoo | Translations: de
  • 3 Chalking the road | Translations: de
  • 4 Petrichor | Translations: de
  • 5 At Ink Level, the sea | Translations: de
  • 6 The last architect in the irish public service | Translations: de
  • 7 Picasso's 'Composition Au Papillon' | Translations: deru
  • 8 Thinking of my father in the musée Picasso | Translations: de
  • 9 The Fiction, The Sea | Translations: de
  • 10 While you sleep | Translations: de
Language: english
Translations: german (Der Ruf des Kuckucks)
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I heard the Cuckoo

Poetry is the cuckoo that sits upon expectant life
While God is absent. Something vague and distant
From a far field, the cuckoo pleases all of us
Without eggs to incubate. But if you want the grief
Of an orphan, or a mother’s absence,
Think of the cuckoo’s global reach, its success

At spreading its parenthood on borrowed warmth:
As poets do, in a manner of speaking.
Here is the nest, the unsuspecting language
That means no harm to anything in creation;
And here, the poem, the subtle invasion
That drops one egg, of both birth and damage.

© Thomas McCarthy
From: unpublished
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, 2012
Categories: poems on poetics, animals

Translations:

Language: german

Der Ruf des Kuckucks

Lyrik ist der Kuckuck, der auf neuem Leben hockt,
Während Gott nicht da ist. Irgendwie entrückt
In weiter Ferne bezaubert uns der Kuckuck,
Ohne dass er brütet. Liegt dir jedoch am Kummer
Eines Waisen oder am Fehlen einer Mutter,
So denk an den Kuckuck, sein Überall und sein Talent

Auf ausgeborgter Wärme Elternschaft zu gründen:
So wie es Dichter auch tun, in gewisser Weise.
Hier ist das Nest, die unberührte Sprache,
Die nichts und keinem Schaden zufügen will;
Und hier das Gedicht, ganz allmählich infizierend,
Das ein Ei legt der Geburt und der Zerstörung.

Übersetzt von Ron Winkler
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Thomas McCarthy

photo © private
* 06.03.1954, Cappoquin, Ireland
lives in: Cork, Ireland

Thomas McCarthy was born in 1954 in Cappoquin/ Ireland. He is a poet, novelist and literary critic.

He attended the University College Cork. There he took, inspired by John Montague, part in the revival of literary activities. 1978/1979 he was a Fellow of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.

In the publishing Anvil Press Poetry, London, he has published seven volumes of poetry, including 'The Sorrow Garden', “The Lost Province”, “Mr Dineen’s Careful Parade”, “The Last Geraldine Officer” and “Merchant Prince”. McCarthy has also published two novels, 'Without Power' and 'Asya and Christine.' In 1977 he won the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award.

 photo © private
Publications
  • The First Convention

    Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1978

  • The Sorrow Garden

    London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1981

  • The Non-Aligned Storyteller

    London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1984

  • Seven Winters in Paris

    London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1989

  • Without Power

    Dublin: Poolbeg Press, 1990

  • Asya and Christine

    Dublin: Poolbeg Press, 1993

  • The Lost Province

    London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1996

  • The Garden of Remembrances

    Dublin: New Island Books, 1998

  • Mr Dineen’s Careful Parade: New and Selected Poems

    London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1999

  • Merchant Prince

    London: Anvil Press Poetry, 2005

  • The Last Geraldine Officer

    London: Anvil Press Poetry, 2009

Awards
  • 1977 Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award

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