The Language Issue

I place my hope on the water
in this little boat
of the language, the way a body might put
an infant

in a basket of intertwined
iris leaves,
its underside proofed
with bitumen and pitch,

then set the whole thing down amidst
the sedge
and bulrushes by the edge
of a river

only to have it borne hither and thither,
not knowing where it might end up;
in the lap, perhaps,
of some Pharoah's daughter.

By Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill [Ceist na Teangan]
Translated by Paul Muldoon

Image from the ballet Fille Du Pharoan (1898)
posted at http://album.aufeminin.com/album/seeall_137966_6/Tutus-et-tenues-de-scene.html