''Sweeney Astray: A Version from the Irish'' is a version of the

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

poem ''

Buile Shuibhne ''Buile Shuibhne'' or ''Buile Suibne'' (, ''The Madness of Suibhne'' or ''Suibhne's Frenzy'') is a medieval Irish tale about Suibhne mac Colmáin, king of the Dál nAraidi, who was driven insane by the curse of Saint Rónán Finn. The insanity ma ...

'' written by

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

, based on an earlier translation by J.G. O'Keeffe. The work was first published in 1983 and won the 1985

PEN Translation Prize The PEN Translation Prize (formerly known as the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize through 2008) is an annual award given by PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to outstanding translations into the English language. It has been p ...

for verse, the first year the prize was awarded as such. Photographer

Rachel Giese Rachel Giese is a Canadian journalist, who won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing in 2019 for her book ''Boys: What It Means to Become a Man''. Currently the editorial director of LGBT news website ''Daily Xtra'', her work has also a ...

later took revised portions of the poem to accompany a collection of her photos titled ''Sweeney's Flight''.

References

{{Irish poetry 1983 books 20th-century Irish literature 1983 poems Irish poems Works by Seamus Heaney