Gabriel Rosenstock

Life
1949- ; b. Kilfinane, Co. Limerick, third child of George Rosenstock, a doctor and writer from Schleswig-Holstein - formerly in the Wehrmacht - and a nurse from Galway, and the first to be born in Ireland; ed. at Gormanstown and Rockwell Colleges, and UCC; suffered the death of a brother in childhood; he was a founding member of the Innti group; worked at RTE on Anois is Arís and later on the weekly Anois; became assistant editor of the State Irish-language publishing company An Gúm; his collections include Susanne sa Seomra Folctha (1973), Tuirlingt (1978), Méaram! (1981), Om (1983), Nihil Obstat (1984) Migmars (1985), and Rún na gCaisleán (1989), and Oráistí (1991), new poems and poems selected from eight previous collections, with some translations from earlier poems in English, with three haikus and an ext. foreword by Colm Breatnach;
 
a selection of his poetry was translated by Michael Hartnett and Jason Summer as Portrait of the Artist as Abominable Snowman (1989); issued Ní Mian Leí an Fhilíocht Níos Mó (1993), and Cold Moon (1993), a collection of erotic haikus; he has translated Seamus Heaney in Conlan (1989), Yeats in Byzantium - ed. with Gearailt Mac Eoin (1991), Günter Grass in An Cloigeann Muice Glóthaithe (1991), Georg Trakl in Craorag (1991); also trans. Peter Huchel, Hansjörg Schertenleib, Andres Ehin, Michael Augustin and Francisco X. Alarcón, and numerous Arab, Sufi, and Japanese poets; issued stories as Bróg Kruschev agus Scéalta Eile (1998);
 
former editor of Éigse/Poetry Ireland; issued Syòjò (2001) - the title-poem being named for a saké-drinking Orangutan; publishes haiku translations under the imprint An Cumann um Haiku; guest ed. World Haiku Review, an online journal, March 2002; issued Bliain an Bhandé/Year of the Goddess (2007); he is a long-standing member of Aosdána; also a prolific translator of works for children; Uttering Her Name (2010), an original collection in English; appeared on radio with a younger brother and professed to believe in Buddhist immortality, Nov. 2011; issued Birbal (2011), an Irish novel for young adults; his son Tristan is a member of the traditional music group Téada [a quintet]. DIW OCIL

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Works
Poetry collections
  • Dánta Duitse! (Cló Iar-Chonnachta 1989), 101pp.
  • Amanathar (Gailliamh: Cló Iar-Chonnachta 1990), 174pp.
  • Nach Ait an Scéal É! (BAC: An Gúm 1991), 87pp.
  • Oráistí, foreword Colm Breatnach (Gailliamh: Cló Iar-Chonnachta 1991), 127pp.
  • Cold Moon: The Erotic Haiku of Gabriel Rosenstock (Dingle: Brandon Press 1993), 95pp., ill. by Pieter Sluis.
  • Fear na bPéistíní (Gailliamh: Cló Iar-Chonnachta 1993), 102pp.
  • Ní Mian Léi an Fhilíocht Níos Mó (Cló Iar-Chonnachta 1993), 91pp.
  • Rogha Rosenstock (Cló Iar-Chonnachta 1994), 59pp.
  • An Phéist Mhór (BAC: An Gúm 1996), 26pp.
  • Syòjò (Gailliamh: Clò Iar Chonnachta 2001), 78pp.
  • Forgotten Whispers, with John Minahan [photos] (Kinsale: Anam Press 2003), 24pp.
  • Eachtraí Krishamurphy (BAC Coiscéim 2003), 116pp..
  • Krishnamurphy Ambaist! (BAC Coiscéim 2004), v, 73pp. [poems and a play in Irish short story in English].
  • Rogha Dánta/Selected Poems, trans. by Paddy Bushe (Cló Iar-Chonnachta 2005), 200pp. [bilingual edn.].
  • Bliain an Bhandé / Year of the Goddess (Dublin: Dedalus Press 2007), 102pp. [poems in Irish with English trans.]
  • Tuairiscíonn Krishnamurphy ó Bhagdad (BAC Coiscéim 2006), vi, 100pp. [actually 2007].
  • Uttering Her Name (Moher: Salmon Poetry 2010), 123pp. [debut collection in English].
  • Haiku más é do thoil é (Dublin: An Gum 2014), q.pp.
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Translations
  • 30 Zen-Haiku, with Gaelic versions by Gabriel Rosenstock (Ireland: An Cumann um Haiku/Conamara: Cló Iar-Chonnachta: 1994), 31pp. [var. 50 Zen Haiku; sel. from W. J. Hackett, Zen Haiku and Other Zen Poems].
  • An Spealadóir Polannach: Rogha Dánta le Peter Huchel [trans. from German by Rosenstock] (Baile Atha Cliath: Comhar Teo. 1994), 103pp. [réamhrá le Andrea Nic Thaidhg; léaraídí le Bernd Rosenheim].
  • Conlán [by Seamus Heaney;, aistrithe ag Gabriel Rosenstock] (BAC: Coiscéim ?1995).
  • Bréagaín, [Leabhar míreanna mearaí ser.] (Baile Atha Cliath: An Gúm [1999], [10]pp., col. ill. 16 cm; 5 jigsaws [trans. of Playthings by Maureen Roffey].
  • Ad Infinitum: Gedichte und Epigramme / Poems and Epigrams / Da´nta agus Burdúin ( Baile Atha Cliath: Coiscéim 2001), 99pp. [poems of Michael Augustin in German, trans. into English by Oeser and into Irish by Rosenstock].
  • Am spraoi [Ar fud an domhain, ser.] (Baile Atha Cliath: An Gúm i gcomhar le Oxfam 2006), [24]pp. , col. ill. [Playtime by Kate Petty; Gabriel Rosenstock a rinne an leagan Gaeilge].
  • Asal Uasal: scéal asailín na Nollag (Baile Atha Cliath: Foras na Gaeilge/An Gúm 2006), [28]pp., col. ill.[by Heather Henning; ill. by Moira Maclean a mhaisigh; trans. by Rosenstock.]
  • Bliain sa Fhrainc (Baile Atha Cliath: An Gúm/Foras na Gaeilge 2006), [28]pp., col. ill. [written & ill. by Karen Tazia trans. by Rosenstock].
  • Bittersüsser Mandelbaum: ausgewaühlte Gedichte / Bitter-sweet almond tree: selected poems / Crann almoínní milis agus searbh: rogha dánta (Baile Atha Cliath: Coiscéim 2006), 104pp. [poems of Hilde Domin, trans. into English by Hans-Christian Oeser, trans. into Irish by Rosenstock].
  • Der alte Mann spricht mit seiner Seele: Gedichte / The Old Man Speaks with His Soul: Poems / Agallamh an tseano´ra lena anam: dánta (Baile Atha Cliath: Coiscéim 2007), 184pp. [poems of Gunter Kunert, trans. into English translated by Oeser and into Irish by Rosenstock].
  • Thugas an ghealach ag siúl [trans. of I Took the Moon for a Walk, by Caroline Curtis] (Baile Átha Cliath: An Gúm 2007), [32]pp., col. ill. by Alison Jay].
  • Guatanánamo: Cimí an champa a chum, trans. and afterword by Rosenstock (Gael Linn 2009), q.pp.
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Drama (in Irish)
  • Smionagar i dteannta an fhíona: cnuasach (Baile Átha Claith: Clódhanna Tta 1978), [3], 101pp. [“Trumpadóir”; “Bean an mhinistir”; “Seacláid”; “Eala ar dinnéar ag Bip”; “Sionnach an eireabaill bhuí B.A.”; “Nuair a bhíomar óg”; “Faighim scian sa bholg”; “An áirc”; “Le sacre du printemps”; “Céadghrá”; “Tá na hothair ag imirt cártaí”].
  • Amanathar (Béal an Daingin, Conamara: Cló Iar-Chonnachta 1989), 174pp. [“Amanathar” (radio); “Ros Saileach” (tv); “Íosfaidh na héin iad” (tv); “An crann bananaí” (radio); “An tAgallamh” (radio); “An Homoaudiovideograph” (radio; after Richard Eichelbeck); “Cnagchomharthaí” (radio; after Heinrich Böll).
In translation
  • Portrait of the Artist as an Abominable Snowman: Selected Poems, trans. by Michael Hartnett, and new poems trans. by Jason Sommer (London: Wake Forest Books 1989), 108pp.
  • trans. Hans-Christian Oeser, Ein Archivar gro[B]er Taten (Edition Rugerup), 111pp.
Fiction
  • Bróg Kruschev agus Scealta Eile (Gailliamh: Cló Iar-Chonnachta 1998), 80pp.
  • Birbal (Dublin: Cló Iar-Chonnacta 2011), 76pp. [see note]
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Miscellaneous
  • contrib. “Diver” to Ireland and the Arts, ed. T. P. Coogan [Special Issue of Literary Review] (London: Namara Press 1984), p.160.
  • contrib. to Kay Mullin, The Wondrous Land: The Faery Faith of Ireland (Berks.: Capall Bann Pub. 1997) [where he is called a ‘seer’].
  • ‘Gaels and Non-Gaels’ in The Irish Times (31 Jan. 1997) [in response to Dudley Smith].

See also contrib. to Best European Fiction 2012, ed. Aleksandar Hemon [3rd annual issue] (Champaign, Illinois & London: Dalkey Archive Press 2011 [sic])
Anthologies
  • with Cathal Ó Searcaigh, ed., Tuirlingt: filí éagsúla, trans. by Gabriel Rosenstock ([Baile Atha Cliath]: Carbad 1978), [56]pp. ill. [by le Bill Doyle];
    with Gearailt Mac Eoin, ed., Byzantium (Indreabhán: Cló Iar-Chonnachta 1991) [contribs. incl. Máire Mac an tSaoi, Douglas Sealy, Séan Mac Mathghamhna, Micheál Davitt; Paddy Finnegan, Tomás Tóibin, Micheál Ó Ruairc, Colm Breatnach, Rosemarie Rowley, Lorcán Ó Tréasaigh, Fidelma Ní Gallchóir, Eithne Strong, Áine Ní Glinn].
  • ed., The Wasp in the Mug: Unforgettable Irish Proverbs, newly translated by Gabriel Rosenstock (Cork: Mercier Press 1993), 111pp.
  • ed., Treasury of Irish Love: Poems, Proverbs & Triads - in Irish and English (NY: Hippocrene Books [1998]), x, 153pp.
 
For children (in English)
  • The Confessions of Henry Hooter the Third: Poems for Owlish Children (Dingle: Brandon Press 1992), 64pp.
For children (trans. into Irish)
  • An tOchtapas agus rainn eile (Baile Atha Cliath: Clódhanna Teo 1977), 31pp., ill. [Gerrit Van Gelderen].
  • An Béar sa choill [by Ivan Gantschev, Zurich 1978];(Baile Atha Cliath: Oifig an tSoláthair 1982), [26]pp., col. ill.
  • An Zú [Maureen Roffey, The Zoo] [Leabhar míreanna mearai, ser.] (Baile Atha Cliath: An Gúm 1998), [10]pp., col. ill.
  • trans. Naoi agus an Áirc [by Michael McCarthy] (Saibhreas 2005), qpp.
  • An t-Ollamh Follamh (BAC: Cois Life 2009), 40pp., ill. [by Róisín Curé].
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Language-teaching
  • Beginner’s Irish (NY: Hippocrene Books 2005), vi, 145pp. [copy in London UL].

Translations from Irish by Gabriel Rosenstock are included in Gregory A. Schirmer, ed., After the Irish: An Anthology of Poetic Translation (Cork UP 2009).

A story by Rosenstock is included in Best European Fiction 2012, ed. Aleksander Hemon, pref. Nicole Krauss (Dalkey Archive Press 2012).

Criticism
Alan Titley, ‘“Glossing the Word”: Titley on Rosenstock as Translator’, in Poetry Ireland (Winter 1992/93), pp.76-83; Frank Sewell, ‘Between Two Languages: Poetry in Irish, English and Irish English’, in Matthew Campbell, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Contemporary Irish Poetry (Cambridge UP 2003), pp.149-68; Padraig de Paor, Cathal Ó Searcaigh & Gabriel Rosenstock agus ról comhaimseartha an fhile sa Ghaeilge (BÁC: An Clochomhar 2006).

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Commentary
Eugene O’Connell, review of Syójó (Cló Iar-Chonnachta), andForgotten Whispers (Anam), in Southword [online journal of Munster Literature], 5 (2003): calls Syójó ‘a wry unsentimental self portrait of a poet in middle age.’ Further: ‘One of the fabled Innti generation he eschews the dinnseanchas style of Davitt/Ó Muithille, the seanchas style of Ní Dhomhnaill in favour of highly charged intellectual word play redolent of Paul Muldoon, his nearest English language poet contemporary. / The Syójó (oriental Orang Utang with a fondness for sake) of the title poem is an imagined persona the poet adopts when he goes out in the town adding a glib question to the more serious one the poem explores, “Cár imigh an sake? Cá ndeacaigh an t-am? [where did the sake go / where did the time go)”? Remarks on exclamations like Huth, Mmm, Hath, Fut, Fat and Ca-plunc! - in a poem compared to those of ee cummings - as well as the use of the Aimsir Gnathcaite [continuous present] tense; speaks of ‘the sheer delight in language and the subversion of the serious philosophical arguments that make these poems so compelling’ and identifies Rosenstock’s ‘favourite stance’ as ‘the distant, the universal in the literal sense, “shaman na speire [shaman of the skies]” [being a] stance that allows him a unique view, a posture that st[r]etches and challenges his intellectual and imaginative powers.’ Of Forgotten Whispers: ‘These poems are cooler and more sombre than Syójó, the humour constricted perhaps by the tightness of the form and the elegiac note memorialising the passage of time, the death of language. / Each piece is accompanied by photographs of statuary [...] Plaster castes of the Blessed Virgin are made interesting by the angled perspective [...’; online.]

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Quotations
Translating Heaney: ‘Heaney is of Irish soil but that soil is much, much older than the English language. The soil is older than the Irish language too and yet it is that language that named the soil and everything that grew out of it. Is it not a logical step to sound out his poetry, to probe those areas of consciousness, memory, inspiration, perception, feeling and sensitivity which would undoubtedly have been expressed in Irish were it not for the vagaries of history?’ (‘Lifting the Veil of History’, in Translation Ireland, 7, 3, 1993, p.4; quoted in Michael Cronin, Translating Ireland: Translations, Languages, Cultures, Cork UP 1996, p.186.)

Catullus, Carmen 5, translated into Irish by Gabriel Rosenstock

Mairimis, a Leisbia liom, agus gráimis a chéile,
agus abraimis nach fiú pingin iad
ráflaí uile na seanóirí!
is féidir leis na grianta dul a luí agus éirí:
nuair a thitfidh an solas neamhbhuan sin orainn
beidh orainn oíche gan chríoch a chur dínn.
t’rom míle póg, agus céad eile fairis,
míle eile ina dhiaidh sin is ansin céad sa bhreis,
is míle eile fós anuas orthu, céad eile ansin.
ansin, agus na mílte póg tugtha againn dá chéile
meascaimis le chéile iad thar eolas,
agus chun nach mbeidh éinne in éad linn nuair a ríomhfar
líon na bpóg go léir a roinneamar.
—Gaius Valerius Catullus website at rudy.negenborn.net - 2003; accessed 10.02.2011.

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References

Books in Print (1994), Dánta Duitse! Cló Iar-Chonnachta, Béal an Daingin, i gcomhar le Folens Teo. 101pp. NPG pb. March 1989; Amanathar. Cló Iar-Chonnachta. 174pp. £5 pb. Feb 1990; Portrait of the Artist as an Abominable Snowman. Forest Books, 20 Forest View, London E4 7AY and PO Box 438 Wayland, MA 01778, USA. 108pp. Stg£7.95 pb 0-948259-56-6. Feb 1990; Nach Ait an Scéal É! An Gúm. 87pp. £1.95 pb. Feb 1991; Craorag, dánta le Georg Trakl. Gabriel Rosenstock a d’aistrigh. Carbad. 83pp. £2.50 pb. Sept 91; Byzantium, Athgabháil ar rogha dánta. William Butler Yeats, in eagar ag Gabriel Rosenstock agus Gearailt Mac Eoin. Cló Iar-Chonnachta. 135pp. £5 pb. Oct. 1991; Oráistí. Cló Iar-Chonnachta. 127pp. £5 pb. Dec 1991; An cloigeann muice glóthaithe ‘Die Schweinekopfsülze’, Günter Grass; Gabriel Rosenstock a d’aistrigh. Coiscéim. 67pp. £4 pb. Mar 1992; Colainn ar Bharr Lasrach’Cuerpo en llamas. Francisco X. Alarcón; Gabriel Rosenstock a d’aistrigh. Cló Iar-Chonnachta’Chronicle Books, San Francisco. 133pp. £6’$9 pb. Apr 1992; The Confessions of Henry Hooter the Third. Brandon. 64pp. £3.99 pb 0-86322-145-9. Jun 1992; De Amor Oscuro’Um an nGrá Dorcha. Francisco X. Alarcón, aistrithe ag Gabriel Rosenstock. Cló Iar-Chonnachta. 36pp. [£6.95] pb 23.5 x 19 cm 0-9627399-0-1. Feb. 1993; Cold Moon, the erotic haiku of Gabriel Rosenstock. illustrations by Pieter Sluis. Brandon. 95pp. £7.95 pb 21 x 21 cm 0-86322-166-1. June 1993; Fear na bPéistíní. Cló Iar-Chonnachta. 102pp. £3 pb 1-874700-50-8. June 1993; The Wasp in the Mug, unforgettable Irish proverbs. Mercier Press. 111pp. £5.99 pb 1-85635-043-6; Ní Mian Léi an Fhilíocht Níos Mó. Cló Iar-Chonnachta. 59pp. £4 pb 1-874700-76-1. Dec. 1993; Rogha Rosenstock. Cló Iar-Chonnachta. 59pp. £3 pb 1-874700-32-X. June 1994; An Spealadóir Polannach: rogha dánta. Peter Huchel, aistr. le Comhar Teo. 133pp. £6 pb 0-9518056-8-1. Nov. 1994; The March Hare and other stories. Pádraic Breathnach, transl. Cló-Iar-Chonnachta. 151pp. £7.50 pb 1-874700-03-6. Feb. 1995; An Phéist Mhór. An Gúm. 26pp. £4 21 x 21 cm 1-85791-142-0. 258.96 Sept. 1996. Also, 50 Zen-Haiku (1994). English, with Gaelic versions by poet Gabriel Rosenstock. Published by An Cumann um Haiku, Ireland.

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Notes
Moore & Bunting: Gabriel Rosenstock writes of Thomas Moore and Edward Bunting in the letters column of The Irish Times (13 Feb. 1997) from an address at Glen na gCaorach, Co. Baile Atha Cliath.

Bealtaine 2004: Gabriel Rosenstock provided the official Irish translation of Seamus Heaney’s “Bealtaine” poem, heralding the enlarged European Union: “Maoláin na Bealtaine: Páirc an Fhionnuisce, Lá Bealtaine, 2004”: ‘Uisce agus fionn. Tá an t-uisce glé. /Ach tum ann is gheobhair Gréagach é: / Féinics ar bharr lasrach ar fhionnuisce é. / Barbarach a thug an Gréagach ar an stróinséir. / Tagadh sliocht na mbarbarach sin go léir / Lena dteangacha a bhí, tráth, doiléir, / // Tagaigí anois as gach aon limistéir / Chun macalla a phiocadh as an spéir - / Féinics is fionnuisce - go réidh. // Bhí maoláin ar lasadh i bhfad is i gcéin / Nuair a nocht na chéad bháid as farraige mhéith / Uisce agus fionn go stadach i mbarr a mbéil. // Éirímis inár seasamh, a chlann, de léim / Gach éinne is a theanga nach tafann í ná méil / Chun bríonna nua a chur i gcéill // Beola a bhogadh, is gan stad dár réim / Ach sinn inár maoláin, ó ré go ré, / Ag lonrú amach as broinn an aigéin / Is fionnuisce ann - is sinn fhéin.’ (Forwarded by Marcella Smyth, Second Secretary, Embassy of Ireland, Toronto.)

World Haiku Review gives seven pages of search results on Gabriel Rosenstock incl. poems and bio-biographical details: Go to World Haiku Review [website].

Birbal (2011): Who was Birbal? He was a clever fool, according to some, and although he lived a long long time ago, they're still talking about him, from Dingle to Darjeeling! Rosenstock previously delighted readers of Irish with retellings of tales concerning the holy fool Nasrudin. In this new book we encounter the loveable antics and sayings of the eponymous Birbal, one of the nine advisors of the 16th century Mughal emperor Akbar. A wonderful collection of beautiful traditional stories and proverbs from Indian folklore.  Adapted from such sources as the Hitopadesha, Panchatantra and Jataka , the stories in this book are about all of life, with stories about animals, about birds and about people. Stories to lift the spirit, delightfully illustrated by Bob Ó Cathail. (See Cló Iar-Chonnachta website - online; accessed 10.12.2011.)

Kith & Kin: Mario Rosenstock, a son of Gabriel, became an overnight success with his Gift Grub programme on Today FM, a mimic-comic session invoking Gerry Ryan, Eamon Dunphy, Alex Ferguson, Roy Keane, Bertie Ahern, Ronan Keating, Eddie Irvine, &, &c. He next turns up in I, Keano, the Olympia Theatre musical skit on Keano and the Saipan saga written by Arthur Mathews of “Father Ted” fame). Peter Sheridan is directing. Mario Rosenstock was photographed arriving at the Olympia in the costume of a radio-interview for The Irish Times (3. Feb. 2005; front-page.)

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