Changeling

Publication Instance Details #2966

Publication Overview

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

Details

Human Rights Issues	War HR & Weapons of Mass Destruction (incl. nuclear)
War / Genocide Referenced	War: Vietnam War
Irish Context	Other
Languages	English
Original Language	Irish
Original Poem	Iarlais
Original Author	Louis de Paor
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	Translation by Louis de Paor, Kevin Anderson, Mary O'Donoghue, and Biddy Jenkinson. This poem combines concepts of modern-day photography with changeling and evil eye mythology. The speaker's daughter is portrayed as Kim Phuc, the young girl in the infamous Vietnam photograph showing children running from a misdirected South Vietnamese napalm strike. Napalm is a mixture of petrol and aluminium salts, which clings to human skin and causes horrific burns. The homely, domestic context of the poem - bath time for the speaker's child before bed - is rendered as part of the brutal scene in Vietnam. The speaker of the poem envisions his daughter's discomfort at the too-hot bath water as Kim Phuc's horrendous napalm burns in the photograph, and describes the screaming child as an 'Iarlais' or 'Changeling'. The speaker of the poem also links the idea of the 'evil eye' with war photography itself - implying something of the voyeuristic nature of capturing someone's suffering for perpetuity.