Asturian-American Migration Forum

If you've never read Paul Muldoon, the Irish poet from County Armagh who teaches at Princeton since the 1980s, see this video of his poem 'Why Brownlee left" on YouTube:

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=GfRmkDM78UE

There is a musicality to the words and a wit/earthiness to the images that I think would translate well into Asturian. Has it been done already?

Why Brownlee left

Why Brownlee left, and where he went,
Is a mystery even now.
For if a man should have been content
It was him; two acres of barley,
One of potatoes, four bullocks,
A milker, a slated farmhouse.
He was last seen going out to plough
On a March morning, bright and early.

By noon Brownlee was famous;
They had found all abandoned, with
The last rig unbroken, his pair of black
Horses, like man and wife,
Shifting their weight from foot to
Foot, and gazing into the future.

For a bio and recordings of his poems, see his official web site:
http://www.paulmuldoon.net/

Here's a quick translation into Asturian:

Por que marchou Brownlee

Por que marchou Brownlee, ya au marchara,
inda ia un misteriu.
Porque si daquien tuviera que ser feliz,
Yera xustamente el: dous praos de cebada, un de patacas, cuatro xatos,
Una vaca de bon l.leite, una caseria con teitu de l.louxa.
Vieronlu per ultima vegada trabayando col l.labieguin,
Ceu una manana de marzu.

Pela tarde, Brownlee ya yera celebre;
Alcontraron tou abandonau, col xugu ensin desapegar
Ya’l sou par de cabal.los prietos, igual que un paisanu xunto la muyer,
Fadiendo esfuerzos conas patas pa nun frayar,
Ya mirando seliquin deica’l futuru.

-----

Si nun conoceis al poeta irlandes, Paul Muldoon, orixinariu del condau d’Armagh ya profesor na universida de Princeton (New Jersey) dende los anos 80, echai gueyada a esti videu no YouTube, ‘Why Brownlee left’.

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=GfRmkDM78UE

Tien una sonorida nas pal.labras ya un xeitu nas imaxenes que peimeque ferrularia abondo bien n’asturianu. Seique xa fixeran la torna?

Why Brownlee left

Why Brownlee left, and where he went,
Is a mystery even now.
For if a man should have been content
It was him; two acres of barley,
One of potatoes, four bullocks,
A milker, a slated farmhouse.
He was last seen going out to plough
On a March morning, bright and early.

By noon Brownlee was famous;
They had found all abandoned, with
The last rig unbroken, his pair of black
Horses, like man and wife,
Shifting their weight from foot to
Foot, and gazing into the future.

Pa biografia ya grabaciones de los sous poemas, visitai la sua web:

http://www.paulmuldoon.net/

Eiqui vei rapidin una torna al asturianu:

Por que marchou Brownlee

Por que marchou Brownlee, ya au marchara,
inda ia un misteriu.
Porque si daquien tuviera que ser feliz,
Yera xustamente el: dous praos de cebada, un de patacas, cuatro xatos,
Una vaca de bon l.leite, una caseria con teitu de l.louxa.
Vieronlu per ultima vegada trabayando col l.labieguin,
Ceu una manana de marzu.

Pela tarde, Brownlee ya yera celebre;
Alcontraron tou abandonau, col xugu ensin desapegar
Ya’l sou par de cabal.los prietos, igual que un paisanu xunto la muyer,
Fadiendo esfuerzos conas patas pa nun frayar,
Ya mirando seliquin deica’l futuru.

Thanks, Paul. I read several other poems by Muldoon online, but I like this one best. Nice choice!

-----------------

Gracias, Paul. Leí otras poemas de Muldoon en línea, pero me encanta más ésa. ¡Buena selección!

For those who do not understand (West) Asturian, here is a translation into Castilian Spanish that my friend Veiga sent me before Paul Muldoon's reading in Paris, at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, last night (May 21, 2008). More about that later. But there goes 'Why Brownlee left' in Spanish, I'm sorry I don't know who the translator is:

"Por qué se fue Brownlee, y a dónde iba,
sigue siendo aún hoy un misterio.
Pues si un hombre debía estar satisfecho
era él. Dos acres de cebada,
uno de papas, cuatro bueyes,
una vaca lechera, una casa de tejas en el campo.
Fue visto por última vez saliendo a arar
una clara mañana de marzo, temprano.

Para el mediodía Brownlee era famoso;
encontraron todo abandonado, el
último zurco sin abrir, su par de caballos
negros, como marido y mujer,
cambiando su peso de una pata
a otra, y mirando fijo hacia el futuro."

I haven't had time to tell about Paul Muldoon's poetry reading here in Paris last week, but my friend Elias Veiga has just sent his own version of 'Why Brownlee left' in Asturian, see below.

Veiga is a poet from my family's own County of Ayande or Allande in West Asturias. I have his collection of poems, titled 'La Tierra Fonda' (Deep earth), published by Trabe publishing house in 2004. His poems are earthy, yes. But what I like most is their offbeat musical qualities and the questions he asks, which in turn remind me of people like Paul Muldoon or Seamus Heany. Veiga and other friends from my village have been to Ireland a few times, it must be said...

Por qué marchou Brownlee

¿Por qué marchóu Brownlee, ya áu iría,
inda güei ía un misteriu.
Porque si un home tenía que tar contentu,
ese era él; duas hectáreas de cebada,
un güertín de patacas, cuatro bonos xatos,
una vaca de l.leite, una casería con teau de pizarra.
Viénonlo por última vez salir a l.labrar
una mañana clara de marzu bien ceo.

Pa la tardiquina Brownlee ya era famosu;
atoupanon tou abandonáu, l'últimu riegu
sin acabar, el sou par de caballos negros,
como home ya muyer, l.levantando las patas
pa descansar del pesu, cona mirada puesta
n'algún puntu fixu del futuru.

Thank you, Is. I like the poem, I like it very much. I need to look for more stuff from this guy.

Gracias Is. Me gusta el poema, me gusta mucho de echo. Tengo que buscar por mas informacion acerca de este tipo

Glad you liked it, Granda. Did you listen to the youtube clip in which Muldoon reads his own poem? I keep coming back to it, with the black&white bolex images and the alsmot casual piano music in the background. Muldoon worked at the BBC for several years and obviously knows how to read his poems.