The Midnight Court

by Ciaran Carson

Originally written in the Irish language by the 18th-century poet Brian Merriman (circa 1745–1805), The Midnight Court is here translated by one of Ireland’s distinguished contemporary poets, Ciaran Carson. This extended satiric poem assesses the growing economic, political, and familial constraints of late 18th-century Catholic Ireland under British colonial rule, while subversively playing on the tradition of the aisling (or vision) poem in which a beautiful woman represents Ireland’s threatened sovereignty. At the beginning of The Midnight Court, a dreadful female envoy from the fairies appears in a dream to the unmarried poet. She summons him before the court of Queen Aoibheall in order to answer charges of wasting his manhood while women are dying for want of love. He listens to complaints that vary from the celibacy of the clergy to marriages performed between old and young for purely economic reasons. In all their bawdy tales, the female courtiers praise fertility, as well as sexual fulfillment, and condemn the conventions of the day. At last the Queen pronounces judgment on the poet, who awakens as he is being severely chastised by all of the women of the court. While containing many insights into 18th-century social conditions, The Midnight Court is also an exuberant, even jaunty work of the comic imagination. As the translator Ciaran Carson states in his “The protagonists of the ‘Court,’ including ‘Merriman’ himself, are ghosts, summoned into being by language; they are figments of the imagination. In the ‘Court’ the language itself is continually interrogated and Merriman is the great illusionist, continually spiriting words into another dimension.”

Genres: Poetry, Irish Literature, Ireland, Classics, 18th Century, Fantasy, Fiction

63 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1974

About the author

Ciaran Gerard Carson was born in 1948 in Belfast and educated at The Queen’s University, Belfast. He knows intimately not only the urban Belfast in which he was raised as a native Irish speaker, but also the traditions of rural Ireland. A traditional musician and a scholar of the Irish oral traditional, Carson was long the Traditional Arts Officer of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and is a flutist, tinwhistler, and singer. He is Chair of Poetry at the Seamus Heaney Centre for poetry at Queen’s University, Belfast. He is married to fiddle player Deirdre Shannon, and has three children.

He is author of over a dozen volumes of poetry, as well as translations of the Táin and of Dante’s Inferno, and novels, non-fiction, and a guide to traditional Irish music. Carson won an Eric Gregory Award in 1978.

Reviews

[Caroline]

I read the English version by Patrick C Power. I can see the potential, but his efforts to preserve the couplet assonance resulted in what seemed very awkward results. My guess is the Ciaran Carson translation would be a very different poem and much more enjoyable.

Interesting for the criticism of English rule and the call for abolishing clerical celibacy, as well as frank celebration of female sexuality. If you’re in search of a magic ritual for finding a husband, there’s a passage with lots of recipes. You might try a spade under your pillow, lying on a cabbage or putting your distaff in the wheat-drying hut.

In part, it’s hard to imagine even a great poet capturing all of the Gaelic music, which I can only guess at since Gaelic spelling and pronunciation seem so far apart to me.

Power’s
“Coming toward me at the haven-side
The large-thighed, big-bellied, tough, magnificent,
Boney, wrathful, surly, strong Amazon. “

Was originally (Fionnuala, please help if I get the wrong lines)

“Chonaic mé chugam le ciumhais an chuain
An mhásach bholgach ghoirgeach ghaibhseach
Chnámhach cholgach ghoirgeach ghaibhdeach. “

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

As others have already said, a very witty, bawdy, entertaining read, one that can be enjoyed on that level alone. But to fully appreciate the social and literary significance of the poem, I'd recommend some background reading, in particular a Declan Kiberd essay in Irish Classics. DK argues that M. was parodying conventions of the traditional "aisling" ("vision") poem in Gaelic literature, and in the process promoting the vernacular in Irish language: "What critics once counted as a weakness may now be seen as Merriman's virtue: his refusal of the 'poetry talk' of Munster tradition. Realism impelled him to tell a good story through colourful characters caught up in an inherently stressful situation. ... Merriman's genius lay in his capacity to write in a language very close to everyday speech of his Clare, and yet somehow to infuse that speech with the rhymes and assonances of poetry. He understood, perhaps better than anyone, that Gaelic poetry had too often failed to trust the rhythms of conversational speech."

DK also argues that M. offers a quite liberal, if not radical, vision of sexual mores, though he acknowledges any feminist message gets muddled, if not outright compromised, by a rather "safe" ending that softens views of sexual freedom promoted earlier.

If that seems like more work than a book should require, I'm sympathetic. I typically don't feel like I need to read some literary scholarship to enjoy or understand a work, and in this case if I hadn't met Kiberd once and shared a meal with him during a campus visit, I doubt I would've bothered. The man seems to know everything about history of Irish Lit, and writes very well (an elusive quality among too many academics). But this is one of those cases where such an essay proved enlightening and enjoyable. But, please, for god's sake, don't let any misguided requirement to pop a few caps of scholarship like digestive enzymes prevent you from reading this very entertaining poem, or any work of literature for that matter.

[Sarah M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gcás amhrais, cuir an locht ar na fir!

[J.A. Ironside · Rating 5 out of 5]

This pretty much strained my command of written Irish to breaking point since I read the original version first, and then checked it against one of the better translations - I'd definitely missed some of the more elliptical colloquialisms. That said it's worth reading in Irish because there is a sense of humour, mindset and turn of phrase that loses a lot of it's nuance and ribald poetry in translation.

It's a loooong poem. Not Paradise Lost long but still at 1000 lines long enough. presented as an 'Aisling' or vision poem. I think it might gain something in seeining it performed. Traditionally the poem is divided into three or sometimes five parts. I imagine the humour is even more accessible when performed.

The plot is the Aoibheal, a Sidhe queen, is asked to aritrate over a dispute between the women and the men of the village. A young woman accuses the men of ruining the women's chances of fulfillment and happiness by refusing to marry. An old man answers angrily that the state of depravity and greed of women is the reason. The young woman then spends 200 lines delivering the most scathing opinion of tge man imaginable.

On the surface it sounds ordinary fair, possibly a bit dated and sexist now. In actuality it's depiction of the incompatibilities of male and female sexuality is pretty close to the mark, not to mention the knuckle. I'm inclined to applaud Merriman for noticing there was such a thing as female sexuality when it was being stringently repressed and oppressed at the time of writing. Ultimately it's not a flattering portrait of either sex and is by turns grotesque, crude, humourous and scathing. It does capture a particular Irish tone in it's delivery and it's portrayal of both conversation/ disagreement and forthright if twisted logic. Definitely worth a read, although if you don't read Irish go for one of the decent translations. Some translations try too hard to convey the assonance and meter and rhyme scheme in English and kill the nuance.

[Matthew Blais · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stuff but fyi I bought “the critical edition” just assuming it’d be the most faithful and thorough translation and while I very much enjoyed it, it’s modernized, and includes stuff like “King Kong”, “Technicolor”, and “refrigerator” in the poem. Could’ve done without that but like I said, loved this and it’s greatness was not lost on me regardless. The essays vary in quality - best part of the extra material is the “Timeline of Events in America, Europe, and Ireland: 1770-1807”

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This poem reminds me a bit of Keats' "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" - by that, I mean it's more like a satire version of the Keats poem, with added social commentary. I especially enjoyed reading the varied translations, each with their own rhythm, rhymes, and overall feeling.

[Amanda Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

“How dare this old dirt-bird discuss womenkind,
When a proof of his manhood no woman can find!”

This is a gem of a poem, and a fantastic translation. If you haven’t read it, you won’t regret picking it up.

[Piper · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.
This was amazing, fantastic, perfect, hilarious. This reads like a modern story told through rhyme or rap. It’s way more progressive than I ever thought it would be, and had so many hilarious puns and moments.

[Naomi Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh... It was odd. I'm glad I read it. But it was strange. But good. But strange.

[Kathy Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny, bawdy, anachronistic translation, but it works. A classic.

[Lenka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disturbingly funny. A bit creepy, yet very entertaining.

[adela🕯️🌙 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rinne mé staidéar ar an dán seo do mo chúrsa ollscoile. Bhain mé taitneamh as, ba dán réabhlóideach é don am gan dabht. Phléigh Merriman roinnt téamaí cosúil le collaí agus cumhacht a tugtha na mban agus bhí na hábhair sin an-conspóideach san 18ú haois, ar ndóigh. Dúirt roinnt daoine gur is é ‘Cúirt an Mheon Oíche’ an ceann don litríocht is fearr hEoraip. Béidir is ea. Bhí an eolais breise sa leabhar le Liam P. O’ Murchú ar fheabhas freisin.

[Christaaay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Funny & way ahead of it's time, but it's not something I felt strongly about

[Kenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A total ripoff of the traditional Jacobite Aisling genre of poetry!

[Victoria Sn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feminists vs red pillers but make it 18th century

Great read loved the use of language

I read the ciaran Carson translation

[Margaret Kirchner]

Hilarious and quick! I'm excited to talk about this in class

[Brendan Behan, MFA · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review is for the Ciaran Carson translation.

[Delia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ribald - and/or scatalogical - poetry are not my idea of literature though both were produced by a writer I admire, Jonathan Swift. The world of publishing was a very different one in the 1700 and 1800s and ribald humour was more openly indulged than is generally the case today. The value of The Midnight Court is primarily as an artifact of the age rather than as literature. It is, in its way, a social document that pulls back the Irish lace curtain revealing the lust and hypocrisy of the privileged classes in a kind of democratic dip into the low-life that crosses class boundaries and makes a mockery of pretense. Certainly there is no claim to literary achievement here anymore than in Boccacio and none of the wicked irony of Chaucer. Were is not so rare a find, it would not be a "find" at all but given the paucity of such examples found intact it has found itself a niche in the history of Irish poetic license. As an artifact it rates a five for rarity. As literature, a one.

[Roz Cashen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful translation of an old classic. Prof. Prionsias O Conluain of the Merriman summer school said it was the best translation of this poem he has even read, keeping as far as possible, not only the meaning but also the sounds of the original Irish verse. Some other beautiful poems as well. Love it.

[D · Rating 2 out of 5]

Clever, amusing, and a wonderful translation--especially given Carson's setting in a nursery-rhyme-like rhythm--but just not my cup of tea. Definitely recommended for those with an interest in poetry or Irish literature, though.

[Nicole Perkins · Rating 1 out of 5]

For the time it was written (1780) this ballad-style poem was probably the cheekiest, funniest thing around. By today's standards, I'll give it points for excellent rhyming, but that's about it.

[Eden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good bawdy and dry Irish humor. Fun poem!

[Patrick]

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