More than a language … no more of a Language’: Merriman, Heaney and the Metamorphoses of Translation

Abstract

This essay examines transformative force of translation, by reading Merriman through the refractive lens of Seamus Heaney’s The Midnight Verdict, the juxtaposition of Merriman’s text with that of classical tragedy, itself read in translation, allows Cúirt an Mhéan Oíche to take on a polyvalent range of meanings. Hence, through translation, it functions as a synecdoche of a metamorphosis of Irish culture through a comparative interaction with the culture of classical Europe. It also gestures towards a pluralistic postcolonial paradigm wherein Connolly’s demand for a new theorisation of Irishness can be enunciated.