Deborah Digges News Today

Doireann Ní Ghríofa discusses her love of American poetry, the role history plays in her work, and the joys of translating herself.

First thought: Thom Gunn, ‘Thoughts on Unpacking’. ‘I realise,’ he ends, ‘that love is an arranging.’ No sooner thought, I think of another, cracking conclusion: ‘The world might change… Change as our kisses are changing without our thinking.’ And then I think of ‘Breakfast Song’, another Elizabeth Bishop poem we’re lucky to have in print. Of Derek Mahon’s ‘Monochrome’. Of Seamus Heaney’s ‘Skunk’. Ev...