(37) ‘Ceathrú tar éis a hocht ar maidin’ 

Publication Instance Details #204

Publication Overview

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

Details

Human Rights Issues	HR & Weapons of Mass Destruction (incl. nuclear) War
War / Genocide Referenced	War: Second World War
Irish Context	WW II (Ireland) Other
Languages	Irish
Genre	Part Of Lyric Sequence
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	This poem is part of the lyric sequence, 'Seabhac ag Guairdeall', in which the poet describes aspects of his childhood, viewed through the lens of Irish neutrality during World War II. In this poem, the thirty-seventh part of the sequence, the speaker contrasts his mundane, comfortable life in Ireland with that of a thirteen-year-old girl, Setsuko, who experiences the bombing of Hiroshima. While the speaker describes his journey in picking up cigarettes for his mother, during his summer holidays from school, the bombing of Hiroshima has left the city in devastation. Through the experience of Setsuko, whose family has been killed, whose eyes have been liquefied, and who listens to the noises of death, the speaker juxtaposes their lives to show his own relative comfort and safety compared to the suffering and horror of those in Hiroshima.