A Pity We're Not Frogs

Publication Instance Details #1224

Publication Overview

Translation	Is Multilingual	Explicit Irish Context?	Ekphrasis	Has Paratext?	Reference to News, Media or Technology
Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No

Details

Human Rights Issues	State Violence
Languages	English
Original Language	Irish
Original Poem	Is Trua nach Loscáin Sinn
Original Author	Pearse Hutchinson
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Anthology
Paratext Text	Dublin, The Summer of Fear: 1976
Notes	This poem describes the year after Franco's death in 1975. Dictator of Spain, Franco ruled the country for 36 years. In this poem, the speaker appears to express anxiety about Spain's transition to democracy. 'It's a pity we're not frogs', reads the title of the poem, with the frogs in the poem burrowing deep into the earth to avoid the hot sun. This hot sun (in Dublin) is referenced being as hot as the Spanish sun, and as by an 'old poet' as being the one thing that Franco couldn't take away from them as a people. The poet mentioned is Joan Oliver, a Catalan writer that spent time in jail for his support for freedom for Catalonia and for his siding with the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. Interestingly, the poet includes a paratext that calls summer 1976, 'the summer of fear'.