{"id":237,"date":"2017-01-26T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T14:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/?p=237"},"modified":"2017-01-26T09:00:50","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T14:00:50","slug":"poem-8-pangur-ban-translated-by-seamus-heaney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/archives\/237","title":{"rendered":"Poem 8: Pangur Ban translated by Seamus Heaney"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>From the ninth-century Irish poem<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Pangur B\u00e1n and I at work,<br \/>\nAdepts, equals, cat and clerk:<br \/>\nHis whole instinct is to hunt,<br \/>\nMine to free the meaning pent.<\/p>\n<p>More than loud acclaim, I love<br \/>\nBooks, silence, thought, my alcove.<br \/>\nHappy for me, Pangur B\u00e1n<br \/>\nChild-plays round some mouse\u2019s den.<\/p>\n<p>Truth to tell, just being here,<br \/>\nHoused alone, housed together,<br \/>\nAdds up to its own reward:<br \/>\nConcentration, stealthy art.<\/p>\n<p>Next thing an unwary mouse<br \/>\nBares his flank: Pangur pounces.<br \/>\nNext thing lines that held and held<br \/>\nMeaning back begin to yield.<\/p>\n<p>All the while, his round bright eye<br \/>\nFixes on the wall, while I<br \/>\nFocus my less piercing gaze<br \/>\nOn the challenge of the page.<\/p>\n<p>With his unsheathed, perfect nails<br \/>\nPangur springs, exults and kills.<br \/>\nWhen the longed-for, difficult<br \/>\nAnswers come, I too exult.<\/p>\n<p>So it goes. To each his own.<br \/>\nNo vying. No vexation.<br \/>\nTaking pleasure, taking pains,<br \/>\nKindred spirits, veterans.<\/p>\n<p>Day and night, soft purr, soft pad,<br \/>\nPangur B\u00e1n has learned his trade.<br \/>\nDay and night, my own hard work<br \/>\nSolves the cruxes, makes a mark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the ninth-century Irish poem Pangur B\u00e1n and I at work, Adepts, equals, cat and clerk: His whole instinct is to hunt, Mine to free the meaning pent. More than loud acclaim, I love Books, silence, thought, my alcove. Happy for me, Pangur B\u00e1n Child-plays round some mouse\u2019s den. Truth to tell, just being here, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238,"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions\/238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}