The Midnight Court

Many translations into English verse of Brian Merriman's celebrated eighteenth-century narrative poem Cúirt an Mheán Oíche (The Midnight Court) have been made by Irish poets over the past two centuries. All translators have tackled the problem of being Irish poets working in English and drawing upon the Irish-language tradition in various ways, as well as having to negotiate between Merriman's world and their own historical moments. This tension in translation is the major focus of The Midnight