Lullaby for Sarah and Asmahane

Publication Instance Details #566

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	War HR & Weapons of Mass Destruction (incl. nuclear)
Languages	English
Original Language	Irish
Original Poem	Suantraí Sarah is Asmahane
Original Author	Liam Ó Muirthile
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Paratext Text	(a girl who died alongside her mother in the bombing of Beirut, August 2006)
Notes	This poem takes place during the 2006 Lebanon War, in which Israel laid siege to Beirut, bombing its airport, blockading sea routes, and closing its airspace. According to the Guardian newspaper: 'Israeli air force planes ranged freely across Lebanon, bombing villages, army bases, bridges and a television station as the Jewish state intensified its campaign to win the release of two soldiers captured by Hizbullah on the border on Wednesday.' This poem traces the death of a young girl and her mother as the result of the conflict, with the poet lamenting her through a lullaby-like poem. The 'seó sín seó' refrain in the poem is a play on the Irish word for lullaby, 'seoithín seó', and the 'Suantraí' in the title refers directly to a lullaby as well.