Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.
Seamus HeaneyRead
In a way, Anglo-Saxon poetry cannot be translated.
Interpretation
Anglo-Saxon poetry's unique essence makes it challenging to convey in other languages.
Seamus Heaney's quote highlights the intricate beauty and cultural significance of Anglo-Saxon poetry, suggesting that its linguistic and rhythmic qualities are so deeply rooted in the original language that any translation may fail to capture its full richness and meaning. This reflects on the broader notion of how language shapes art and experience in unique ways.
In practice
In a lecture about the nuances of language, Seamus Heaney's quote can spark a discussion about the challenges of translation.
Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.
What I've said before, only half in joke, is that everybody in Ireland is famous. Or, maybe better, say everybody is familiar.
The kinds of truth that art gives us many, many times are small truths. They don't have the resonance of an encyclical from the Pope stating an eternal truth, but they partake of the quality of eternity. There is a sort of timeless delight in them.
If self is a location, so is love: Bearings taken, markings, cardinal points, Options, obstinacies, dug heels, and distance, Here and there and now and then, a stance.
In my early teens, I acquired a kind of representative status: went on behalf of the family to wakes and funerals and so on. And I would be counted on as an adult contributor when it came to farm work - the hay in the summertime, for example.
I think that water is immediately interesting. It's just, as an element, it is full of life. It is associated with origin; it is bright - it reflects you.
The greatness of a musician is measured by the degree of fanaticism he brings to his playing.
I do not deny that I have made drawings and watercolors of an erotic nature. But they are always works of art. Are there no artists who have done erotic pictures?
As an artist, you dream about accumulating enough successful music to someday do just one greatest-hits album, but to reach the point where you're releasing your second collection of hits is beyond belief.
Cinema, radio, television, magazines are a school of inattention: people look without seeing, listen in without hearing.
To a true artist only that face is beautiful which, quite apart from its exterior, shines with the truth within the soul.
I'm just going to make the music I love to make, and I'm going to mature with my music.
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