A View from the Grave : Translation into English in Ireland

Abstract

A writer in Ireland whose background is bilingual finds her sense of language displaced and distorted, not just in relation to Standard English, but in relation to other languages, because of the greater intensity of the Gaelic field, related to family and childhood, which is superimposed first on Hiberno-English and then on other languages. Having translated from Irish the poems of another bilingual writer, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, I argue from the overlap between our two languages that the enterprise of translation and its readership need to be redefined in this context. When translating from Romanian, mainly into English but also into Irish, I found the work of Ileana Màlàncioiu gave me opportunities to explore the limits of the English that I write. Many instances of the impact of Irish and of Hiberno-English on my translations into English reflect the nature of the bilingual experience, my own and that of my readers.