WITHIN days of each other, two books have enriched literature in with new translations of major European works, showing that the language is still a vital literary tool. Monsignor Padraig de Brua, translator of Dante's Divine Comedy, was a remarkable man. He translated many works from Greek, Latin, French and Italian into Irish. Most of them found their way into print at the time of their translation in the 1920s: Antioghoine, Ri Oidiopus and Oidiopu's i gColun appeared within the space of three years, before de Brun turned his attention to Racine, Corneille, Plutarch and Homer.
Sadly, his translation of Dante was not published in his lifetime, except for Book One, "Ifreann/Hell", which his niece, the poet Maire Mhac an tSaoi, edited in 1963. Thirty years later Dr Ciaran O Coigligh of the Department of Irish at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, took up the challenge and has completed what de Brun and Mhac an tSaoi started. One can only marvel at the task which both de Brun and O Coigligh took upon themselves. The completed text is impressive. De Brun had a masterful grasp of the language and this work has many sentences and phrases which recall the rich Irish of an earlier era and an earlier Gaeltacht.
It is humbling, and gratifying to read a translation at the end of the millenium from a 14th-century text, knowing that the work by translator, editors and publisher was done simply out of love for literature and language.
Breandun O Doibhlin, like de Brun, is an equally remarkable priest and scholar. Born in Tyrone, O Doibhlin was educated at St Columb's in Derry, and was part of that generation that included Brian Friel, John Hume, Seamus Heaney and Seamus Deane. For many years he was professor of French in St Patrick's College, Maynooth, and was made a Chevalier de l'Orde National de Merite for his contribution to French culture.
Currently he is president of the Irish College in Paris.
La Fontaine's fables are part of many childhoods. O Doibhlin gives us a brief introduction to the life and work of the writer and explains why these fables continue to have such a strong grip on our imagination. The original French and O Doibhlin's translations are side by side.
In this election year, perhaps we should send our politicians a copy so that they might be reminded of "Le Chene et le Roseau/An Dair agus an Ghiolcach" - though perhaps politicians know only too well how to bend rather than break. Indeed, the story of "Renard et le Bouc/An Sionnach agus an Pocaide" should be compulsory reading for all the partners in the Rainbow Coalition. Perhaps, too, we voters would do well to take to heart the lesson of "Les Grenouilles qui demandent un Roi/Na Froganna ag iarraidh Ri" before it is too late.
These works are not one-offs from their translators/editors. O Coigligh has become a sympathetic editor of de Brun's work. Previously he edited his translation of Homer's An Odaise (Coisceim, 1990). Similarly, O Doibhlin has already translated Blaise Pascal's Pensees into Irish under the title Smaointe le Blaise Pascal (Coisceim, 1994) and has completed a translation of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Le Petit Prince.
We are spoilt for choice.