At 11:57 AM 4/8/99 -0500, Dale Hample wrote:
>sounds cool. is it in English? my wife would enjoy it.
>
>Dale Hample
>
>Elizabeth Mclachlan wrote:
>
>> There was also the Irish monk in Austria who wrote the
poem about "Pangur
>> Ban", "my white cat", who hunted mice while the monk
hunted words...
>> Elizabeth McLachlan, Art History, Rutgers
>
>
For Dale Hample, his wife, and others out there interested
in this poem, I offer the following translation by Robin
Flower, from Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes, eds., _The
Rattle Bag: An Anthology of Poetry_ (London: Faber and
Faber, 1982).
PANGUR BAN
I and Pangur Ban, my cat,
'Tis a like task we are at;
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.
Better far than praise of men
'Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill-will,
he too plies his simple skill.
'Tis a merry thing to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment in our mind.
Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur's way;
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.
'Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
'Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.
When a mouse darts from its den,
O how glad is Pangur then!
I what gladness do I prove
When I solve the doubts I love!
So in peace our tasks we ply,
Pangur Ban, my cat, and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine and he has his.
Practice every day has made
Pangur perfect in his trade;
I get wisdom day and night
Turning darkness into light.
Stephen A. Allen
The Medieval Institute
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556-5692
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