en

7806

Logo lyrikline pure Logo lyrikline claim
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
all results
  • Contact
  • Partners
  • Donation
  • deutsch
  • english
  • français
  • slovenščina
  • العربية
  • русский
  • español
  • português
  • 中文
  • POETS
    • A-Z 
      • A
      • B
      • C
      • D
      • E
      • F
      • G
      • H
      • I
      • J
      • K
      • L
      • M
      • N
      • O
      • P
      • Q
      • R
      • S
      • T
      • U
      • V
      • W
      • X
      • Y
      • Z
    • by languages 
      • afrikaans
        albanian
        amharic
        arabic
        armenian
        basque
        belarusian
        bengali
        bosnian
        breton
        bulgarian
        burmese
        catalan
        chinese
        cree
        croatian
        czech
        danish
        dutch
        english
        estonian
        finnish
        french
        galician
        georgian
        german
        greek
        gujarati
        hebrew
        hindi
        hungarian
        icelandic
        indonesian
        irish
        italian
        japanese
        kalaallisut
        kannada
        korean
        kurdish
        latvian
        lithuanian
        macedonian
        malay
        malayalam
        maltese
        marathi
        nepali
        northern sami
        norwegian
        oriya
        persian
        polish
        portuguese
        punjabi
        rhaeto-romance
        romanian
        russian
        scottish gaelic
        serbian
        shona
        sindhi
        sinhala
        slovak
        slovenian
        southern sami
        spanish
        swahili
        swedish
        tamil
        telugu
        tswana
        turkish
        ukrainian
        urdu
        uzbek
        vietnamese
        welsh
        xhosa
        yiddish
    • by countries 
      • Albania
        Algeria
        Andorra
        Angola
        Argentina
        Armenia
        Australia
        Austria
        Bahrain
        Bangladesh
        Belarus
        Belgium
        Bolivia
        Bosnia and Herzegovina
        Botswana
        Brazil
        Bulgaria
        Burundi
        Cambodia
        Canada
        Chile
        China
        Colombia
        Congo - Kinshasa
        Costa Rica
        Croatia
        Cuba
        Cyprus
        Czech Republic
        Côte d’Ivoire
        Denmark
        Dominican Republic
        Egypt
        Estonia
        Ethiopia
        Finland
        France
        Georgia
        Germany
        Ghana
        Greece
        Greenland
        Guatemala
        Guinea-Bissau
        Haiti
        Honduras
        Hungary
        Iceland
        India
        Indonesia
        Iran
        Iraq
        Ireland
        Israel
        Italy
        Jamaica
        Japan
        Kenya
        Kuwait
        Latvia
        Lebanon
        Libya
        Lithuania
        Luxembourg
        Macedonia
        Malawi
        Malaysia
        Malta
        Martinique
        Mexico
        Moldova
        Montenegro
        Morocco
        Mozambique
        Myanmar [Burma]
        Netherlands
        New Zealand
        Nigeria
        Norway
        Oman
        Pakistan
        Palestinian Territories
        Paraguay
        Peru
        Poland
        Portugal
        Puerto Rico
        Romania
        Russia
        Saint Lucia
        Saudi Arabia
        Senegal
        Serbia
        Singapore
        Slovakia
        Slovenia
        South Africa
        South Korea
        Spain
        Sri Lanka
        Sweden
        Switzerland
        Syria
        São Tomé and Príncipe
        Taiwan
        Trinidad and Tobago
        Tunisia
        Turkey
        Ukraine
        United Arab Emirates
        United Kingdom
        United States
        Uruguay
        Uzbekistan
        Venezuela
        Vietnam
        Yemen
        Zambia
        Zimbabwe
  • POEMS
    • by languages 
      • afrikaans
        albanian
        amharic
        arabic
        arawak
        armenian
        basque
        belarusian
        bengali
        bosnian
        breton
        bulgarian
        burmese
        catalan
        chinese
        cree
        croatian
        czech
        danish
        dutch
        english
        estonian
        finnish
        french
        galician
        georgian
        german
        greek
        gujarati
        hebrew
        hindi
        hungarian
        icelandic
        indonesian
        irish
        italian
        japanese
        kalaallisut
        kannada
        korean
        kurdish
        latvian
        lithuanian
        lushai
        macedonian
        malay
        malayalam
        maltese
        maori
        marathi
        nepali
        northern sami
        norwegian
        oriya
        persian
        polish
        portuguese
        punjabi
        rhaeto-romance
        romanian
        romany
        russian
        scottish gaelic
        serbian
        shona
        sindhi
        sinhala
        slovak
        slovenian
        sorbian language
        southern sami
        spanish
        swahili
        swedish
        tamil
        telugu
        tswana
        tumbuka
        turkish
        ukrainian
        urdu
        uzbek
        vietnamese
        welsh
        western frisian
        xhosa
        yiddish
    • in translation 
      • abkhazian
        afar
        afrikaans
        albanian
        arabic
        araucanian
        armenian
        assamese
        basque
        belarusian
        bengali
        berber
        bosnian
        breton
        bulgarian
        buriat
        catalan
        chechen
        chinese
        chuvash
        corsican
        croatian
        czech
        danish
        duala
        dutch
        english
        esperanto
        estonian
        finnish
        french
        galician
        georgian
        german
        greek
        gujarati
        haitian
        hebrew
        hindi
        hungarian
        icelandic
        indonesian
        irish
        italian
        japanese
        kalmyk
        kannada
        kashmiri
        kazakh
        kirghiz
        korean
        kumyk
        kurdish
        latin
        latvian
        lezghian
        lithuanian
        lushai
        macedonian
        malay
        malayalam
        maltese
        marathi
        mayan language
        mongolian
        nepali
        norwegian
        occitan
        oriya
        persian
        polish
        portuguese
        rhaeto-romance
        romanian
        romany
        russian
        sanskrit
        sardinian
        scots
        scottish gaelic
        serbian
        shona
        sindhi
        sinhala
        slovak
        slovenian
        sorbian language
        southern sami
        spanish
        swahili
        swedish
        swiss german
        tajik
        tamil
        tatar
        telugu
        tetum
        turkish
        udmurt
        ukrainian
        urdu
        uzbek
        vietnamese
        welsh
        yakut
    • genres & aspects
      • experimental poetry
      • concrete poetry
      • sound poetry
      • visual poetry
      • poetry projects
      • series & cycles
      • poetry for children
      • humorous poetry
      • narrative poetry
      • poems on poetics
      • Ecopoetry / Nature writing
      • political poetry
      • erotic poetry
      • dialect
      • performance
      • with music / sound
      • spoken word / Rap
      • translingual / hybrid / Pidgin
    • poetic forms & terms
      • ode
      • haiku / tanka
      • collage / montage
      • Dinggedicht
      • prose poem
      • rhymed stanza
      • renshi
      • sestina
      • sonnet
      • terza rima
      • villanelle
      • ghazal
      • ballad
    • issues
      • society
        • identity (collective)
        • traditions
        • homeland
        • cities & urban life
        • history
        • politics
        • war
        • exile
        • economy
        • social critique / cultural criticism
      • life & relationship
        • family
          • birth
          • child
          • mother
          • father
        • infancy & youth
        • age
        • memory
        • identity (personal)
        • gender & sexuality
          • woman
          • man
          • sex & eroticism
          • homosexuality
        • friendship
        • love
        • marriage
        • relationship conflict
        • work
        • illness
        • body
        • violence
        • loss & separation
        • death & grief
        • funeral
        • religion & sprituality
        • Dream
        • travel
        • time
        • eating & drinking
        • alcohol & drugs
      • culture & science
        • architecture & design
        • poetry & poets
        • art & painting
        • literature & reading
        • fairy-tales & legends
        • medicine & science
        • music
        • mythology
        • philosophy
        • photography & film
        • popular culture
        • language
        • theater & dance
        • writing (poetry)
      • nature
        • spring
        • summer
        • fall
        • winter
        • landscape
        • water
        • animals
        • plants
    • Rhythmic Patterns
      • Parlando
      • Cadence
      • Variable Foot
      • Sprung Rhythm
      • Syncopations
      • Rubato
      • Permutations
      • Gestic rhythm (= Stressed Enjambements)
      • Cut-ups
      • Ellipses
      • Syllabic decompositions
      • Lettristic Decomposition
  • NEW
    • Poems
    • Poets
    • Translations
Login
  •  

Rita Ann Higgins

Woman's Inhumanity to Woman

  • 1 Ask the Concierge | Translations: de
  • 2 Edict | Translations: de
  • 3 He Knows No Artichokes | Translations: de
  • 4 The Immortals | Translations: de
  • 5 Ireland is changing Mother
  • 6 Light of the Moon
  • 7 Our Brother the Pope | Translations: ru
  • 8 Some People | Translations: de
  • 9 The Did-You-Come-Yets of the Western World | Translations: de
  • 10 Woman's Inhumanity to Woman | Translations: de
Language: english
Translations: german (Die Unmenschlichkeit der Frauen gegen die Frauen)
  • play
  • pause
Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.

Woman's Inhumanity to Woman
(Galway Labour Exchange)

And in this cage, ladies and gentlemen,
we have the powers that be.

Powder power,
lipstick power,
pencil power,
paper power,
cigarette in the left-hand power,
raised right of centre half-plucked eyebrow,
Cyclops power,
big tits power,
piercing eyes power,
filed witches' nails power,
I own this building power,
I own you power,
fear of the priest power,
fear of the Black 'n' Tans power.

Your father drank too much power,
your sister had a baby when she was fifteen power,
where were you last night power,
upstairs in your house is dirty power,
the state of your hotpress power,
the state of your soul power,
keep door closed power,
keep eyes closed power,
no smoking power,
money for the black babies power,
queue only here power,
sign only there power,
breathe only when I tell you power.

No pissing on the staff power,
jingle of keys power,
your brother signs and works power,
ye have a retarded child power,
you sign and work power,
look over vour shoulder power,
spy in the sky power,
spy in the toilet power,
fart in front of a bishop power.

Apologise for your mother’s colour hair power,
Apologise for your father’s maiden name power,
Apologise for being born power.

© Bloodaxe Books Ltd
From: Throw in the Vowels
Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books Ltd, 2005
ISBN: 1852247002
Audio production: 2008 Literaturwerkstatt Berlin

Translations:

Language: german

Die Unmenschlichkeit der Frauen gegen die Frauen
(Arbeitsamt Galway)

Und in diesem Käfig meine Damen und Herren
haben wir die maßgeblichen Organe.

Puder Macht
Lippenstift Macht
Bleistift Macht
Papier Macht
Zigarette in der linken Hand Macht
hochgezogene rechts von der Mitte halbgezupfte Augenbrauen
Zyklopen Macht
große Brüste Macht
durchbohrende Augen Macht
mir gehört dieses Gebäude Macht
mir gehörst du Macht
Angst vor dem Priester Macht
Angst vor den Black n' Tans Macht

dein Vater soff zuviel Macht
deine Schwester hatte mit fünfzehn ein Baby Macht
wo hast du dich gestern rumgetrieben Macht
der obere Stock in deinem Haus ist dreckig Macht
der Zustand von deinem Kleiderschrank Macht
der Zustand von deiner Seele Macht
lass die Türen zu Macht
lass die Augen zu Macht
nicht rauchen Macht
Almosen für afrikanische Babys Macht
nur hier anstellen Macht
nur dort unterschreiben Macht
atme nur wenn ichs erlaube Macht

nicht auf die Angestellten pissen Macht
Schlüsselgeklingel Macht
dein Bruder kriegt Arbeitslosengeld und arbeitet schwarz Macht
du hast ein geistig behindertes Kind Macht
du kriegst Arbeitslosengeld und arbeitest schwarz Macht
schau über deine Schulter Macht
schau über deines Bruders Schulter Macht
ich weiß den Mädchennamen deiner Mutter Macht
schau zu Boden Macht
ich weiß den Mädchennamen deines Vaters Macht
Spion am Himmel Macht
Spion im Klo Macht
Pfurz vor einem Bischof Macht

Entschuldige dich wegen der Haarfarbe deiner Mutter Macht
entschuldige dich wegen des Mädchennamens deines Vaters Macht
Entschuldige dich dass du geboren bist Macht

Aus dem Englischen von Eva Bourke
previous poem
   (The...)
10 / 10
next poem
(Ask the Concierge)   
listen to all poems

Rita Ann Higgins

* 26.05.1955, Galway, Ireland
lives in: Galway, Ireland

Rita Ann Higgins, born in Galway in 1955, has published numerous volumes of poetry, as well as several plays. One of 11 children, Higgins left school at 14 and first began to be interested in writing during a long stay in hospital in her 20s.

In an interview she described her decision to become a poet with a typical lack of pretension: 'You didn’t have to worry about tenses and verbs. You could write a poem without a verb, and if you didn’t know what a verb was – and I didn’t – it was ok.' Her poems, similarly ironic in tone, have been awarded numerous prizes.

Higgins has held the post of Writer-in-Residence at several Irish Universities, undertaken readings at Oxford, Queens, and Yale University - where her poems are also part of the Literature Curriculum - and at conferences in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Belgium and Israel. Her poems have been translated into Hebrew, German, Italian, Dutch, French and Swedish.

Publications
  • Goddess on the Mervue Bus

    County Clare: Salmon Poetry, 1986

  • Witch in the Bushes

    County Clare: Salmon Poetry, 1988

  • Goddess and Witch

    County Clare: Salmon Poetry, 1990

  • Face Licker Come Home

    [Play / Theaterstück]

    First produced: Punchbag Theatre, Galway

    Salmon Publishing, 1991

  • Philomena's Revenge

    County Clare: Salmon Poetry, 1992

  • God of the Hatch Man

    [Play / Theaterstück]

    First produced: Taibhdhearc na Gallimhe, Republic of ireland

    Unpublished, 1993

  • Higher Purchase

    County Clare: Salmon Poetry, 1996

  • Sunny Side Plucked: New and Selected Poems

    Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books Ltd, 1996

  • Throw in the Vowels: Selected Poems

    Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books Ltd, 2005

Links
  • Rita Ann Higgins' Official Website

    Website (en)

Remember poem / Add to List

remembered 1 times

all public lists

Poem already on my list

If you want to remember or list a poem, become a community member.

Login/Register now
more poets from Ireland more poems in english Translations into english

Random poem

PUSH!

gedicht page complete: (0,101s)
  • About
  • Links
  • Blog
  • Newsletter
  • Produced by
  • privacy
lyrikline is created by Literaturwerkstatt Berlin in cooperation with its international network of lyrikline partners