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Blackbird Poems

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Int én bec
ro léc feit
do rinn guip
          glanbuidi

fo-ceird faíd
ós Loch Laíg,
lon do chraíb
          charnbuidi

9th Century Irish
The small bird
chirp-chirruped:
yellow neb,
          a note-spurt.

Blackbird over
Lagan water.
Clumps of yellow
          whin-burst!
Seamus Heaney

the little bird
that whistled shrill
from the nib of
          its yellow bill:

a note let go
o’er Belfast Lough -
a blackbird from
          a yellow whin

Ciaran Carson