Day of Welcomes 20th Anniversary
On May Day 2004, Ireland hosted the Day of Welcomes to celebrate the accession of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia to the European Union.
Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney was commissioned by the Government of Ireland to write a poem for the ceremony. To mark the twentieth anniversary of this historic day, his poem, ‘Beacons at Bealtaine’, has been translated and published in the national languages of the ten states, with an accompanying short film.
This special project is a partnership between the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Estate of Seamus Heaney and Literature Ireland.
Beacons at Bealtaine introduction
By Seamus Heaney
In the Celtic calendar that once regulated the seasons in many parts of Europe, May Day, known in Irish as Bealtaine, was the feast of bright fire, the first of summer, one of the four great quarter days of the year.
The early Irish Leabhar Gabhála (The Book of Invasions), tells us that the first magical inhabitants of the country, the Tuatha Dé Danaan, arrived on the feast of Bealtaine, and a ninth century text indicates that on the same day the druids drove flocks out to pasture between two bonfires.
So there is something auspicious about the fact that a new flocking together of the old European nations happens on this day of mythic arrival in Ireland; and it is even more auspicious that we celebrate it in a park named after the mythic bird that represents the possibility of ongoing renewal.
But there are those who say that the name Phoenix Park is derived from the Irish words, fionn uisce, meaning “clear water” and that coincidence of language gave me the idea for this poem. It’s what the poet Horace might have called a carmen saeculare, a poem to salute and celebrate an historic turn in the saeculum, the age.
Beacons at Bealtaine
Phoenix Park, May Day, 2004
Uisce: Water. And fionn: the water’s clear.
But dip and find this Gaelic water Greek:
A phoenix flames upon fionn uisce here.
Strangers were barbaroi to the Greek ear.
Now let the heirs of all who could not speak
The language, whose ba-babbling was unclear,
Come with their gift of tongues past each frontier
And find the answering voices that they seek
As fionn and uisce answer phoenix here.
The May Day hills were burning, far and near,
When our land’s first footers beached boats in the creek
In uisce, fionn, strange words that soon grew clear;
So on a day when newcomers appear
Let it be a homecoming and let us speak
The unstrange word, as behoves us here,
Move lips, move minds, make new meanings flare
Like ancient beacons signalling, peak to peak,
From middle sea to north sea, shining clear
As phoenix flames upon fionn uisce here.
© the Estate of Seamus Heaney. Reused by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd
Explore the translations
Explore Seamus Heaney’s 'Beacons at Bealtaine', translated into the national languages of the ten states which joined the European Union on 1 May 2004, by clicking on the tiles below:
Cyprus
Λάμψεις την Πρωτομαγιά - Seamus Heaney
Czech Republic
Ohně o Bealtainu - Seamus Heaney
Estonia
Beltane’i majakad - Seamus Heaney
Hungary
Májusi máglyák - Seamus Heaney
Latvia
Maija dienas bākas - Seamus Heaney
Lithuania
Bealtaine švyturiai - Seamus Heaney
Malta
Ħġejjeġ nhar il-Bealtaine - Seamus Heaney
Poland
Ogniska w święto Beltane - Seamus Heaney
Slovak Republic
Pochodne na Bealtaine - Seamus Heaney
Slovenia
Bealtainski svetilniki - Seamus Heaney
The Estate of Seamus Heaney
With thanks to the Estate of Seamus Heaney for their support on this project.
Literature Ireland
With thanks to Literature Ireland for their support on this project.
Design by LANGUAGE