Gerry Loose: From 'The Great Book of the Woods' (with a note on its sources)
the primer
let profit be gno
let bora be strength
let the duality of the conjugal be ter
let rfoph be veneration
let piety be brops
rihph be cheerfulness
let gal be a kingdom
let religion be fkal
let clitps be nobility
let dignity be mymos
let fann be recognition
let honour be ulio
let gabpal be compliance
blaqth be sunlight
rain be merc
let pal be day & night
let peace be gatrb
biun be water & fire
let longevity be spax
**
the present time is put for all times
a deed wonderful unlawful
he confounded them
he confused them
when one would say to another
fetch me a stone
it was a stick he’d bring
**
on that account
the select language
the additional language
the language parted related
in the Great Book of Woods
**
what is the language parted
in the Great Book of the Woods?
this: óig & máir
this: náir & náir mas
other is amuis & gairg
& grin
what is the verb?
it is this: shining
coming & showing
there is science in place
it comes out of the letters
into words
**
fall, shine, show, come
out of that primary nature into words
out of these letters into words
they speak the thing
the foundation of the voice
the ways of the voices
the letter is a road
a voice path
they make the voice in place
**
the wood vowels
that nourish while in mind
that sing at giving
that sue for reward
that judge greatness or smallness
that sit after payment
the material for words
is cut out of them
the sides of oaks
**
half the voice is thrown out
the stammering voice
the half voice place
the half voice way
not because they would be
speechless altogether
the mutes
before them & after them
before them & after them
**
he the man
she the woman
it the heaven
speech-way
along the way
along the path
which is trodden
let it come
let it go
he is the heavens
she is the stone
it is the head
her nose or her eye
his tooth or his mouth
words of a language
we do not know
we do not think sweet
we do not use them
she is the steed
a bark of butter
a sieve of corn
**
what is comparison of sense without sound?
what is comparison of sound without sense?
comparison of sense and sound together
that is the proper comparison
there is good and nothing to surpass
its measure to suit the ear
its adjustment to breathing
a wood of science
a mark of aspiration
letter to letter
**
the space of time
between
two syllables
is its meaning
is a letter a species?
in the wood of the forest
is a letter a genus?
**
according to sound
which goes
which comes
the fragment
of cut off air
diminution of time
the tongue of silence
double sounds
knowledge of thing perishes
unless the name is known
power & want of power
full power & half power
written & not counted
stone turning music
they step
**
poison of a serpent
they blow the fire
meal of corn
heaven round earth
the staves of words
interloping syllables
plain of deer
copses of wood
duck along a pool
swift and dense flax seed
*****
ear-lobe compression
family-like-every-second-one-of them
all-the-mistakes-which-we-have-committed
*****
a thing is not an origin for itself
syllables
choral song silent in its law
the music that is
small music that is humming
loud music trumpeting
its mournful cry
thunder or a tree
when it is a whistle
shriller harder
greater music when a harp
silent its music
when sweetest it is silent
**
the limbs of science are named
not mixed speech
it praises from the front
it is sent
it is hastened
staves of words
a staff out of a word
staves in reasonable speech
in the mouths
halting from word to word
**
the interloping syllable
its flinging of a man
if a man suffer on land
the man allows suffering on him
he goes afterwards
to bathe himself in the water
he lets himself down the bank
into the water
tot says the wave under him
the sound which waves make
the heavy voice the man utters
dropping himself on the water
**
the name has happened
to the sound
the haft of speech
from which no speech grows
but speech of death
the spear point
what is haft
which is after blade
the after blade
which is haft
and the haft
which is before blade
haft is the spear
haft itself will come
after blade
everything final
haft which is after blade
the haft is the haft
which is before blade
**
it is the head
it is artificial to say it
while it is on the man
it is natural to say it
after striking the head off him
**
the couple of the gore
redness and crimson
leg and foot
the couple of supporting
eyelashes & eyebrow
root & breadth
skin & sinew
activity & surface
one for warding upon
one for good warding
cap on knee
lips in strength & loudness
flesh & blood
which is in the flesh
top bone & jaw bones
knuckles & hair
a man’s limbs
are made of science
**
on, under, through, in
past the heavens
its interloping syllable
heaven about earth
cloud & bow of heaven
for every sort of speech
that is produced
on human lips
[NOTE (by Gerry Loose): The Primer is loosely drawn from the Auraicept na n-Eces, a seventh century CE Old Irish tract known as the Scholars’ Primer or Handbook of the Learned.
It deals with Irish grammar and vernacular, claimed within that book to be descended from speech before the Tower of Babel and more comprehensive than Hebrew, Latin or Greek. The earliest written version we have is from the twelfth century CE, with many additions to the early text.
It also contains the texts of the ogham tracts from the Book of Ballymote, the Yellow Book of Lecan and the text of the Trefhocul from the Book of Leinster. Ogham was a system of more-or-less secret writing developed by poets and used, among other ways, on monolithic stone inscriptions, somewhat runic in appearance.
Its thrust is a comparison between grammar and the natural world, including human endeavour, which is at the heart of ogham inscriptions.
My versions are taken in this instance only from that part of the book preceding the ogham tracts, which have been the subjects of my interest and peripatetic study for more than forty years.
It forms the preface to my continuing work on ogham: The Great Book of the Woods. “Ogham is climbed as a tree is climbed.” (Damian McManus)]
Poems and poetics