Awake, I am here in France.
When I sleep I'm in the Ireland of Conn.
Who would choose to watch and wake?
I am watchful-- to suckle sleep.
--Pádraigín Haicéad/ Patrick Hackett (ca 1600-1654), tr. Thomas Kinsella, with Seán Ó Tuama, from An Duanáire: Poems of the Dispossessed. Haicéad was a priest who like many educated Irish Catholics spent much time on the Continent.
Isan bhFrainc im dhúscadh dhamh
in Éirinn Chuinn im chodladh;
beag ar ngrádh uaidh don fhaire--
do thál suiain ar síorfhaire.
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