Derevaun Seraun
A fascinating story of (over)interpretation by critics, analysed by an Irish-language expert.
‘As is always the case with Irish, the anglophone world is never slow to project all kinds of ridiculous fantasies onto our language.’
‘… I think he was spot-on when he said that the phrase was ‘probably gibberish’. It’s meant to sound Irish without meaning anything. It suggests Irish but leaves the whole thing open to interpretation. I imagine that Joyce chose these meaningless Irish-sounding words very carefully, knowing that a tantalising puzzle with no solution would have critics of his work swarming all over it like flies on shite.’
This is a question I have been meaning to deal with for a while. It was never discussed by Cassidy but it is of some interest.
Derevaun Seraun is a phrase found in Joyce’s Dubliners story Eveline. It is uttered by a dying old woman, the mother of the eponymous Eveline.
There is no doubt that it sounds Irish and some people claim to hear some clear message in it. As a fluent Irish speaker, do I hear anything Irish in it? Well, I have to admit that when I say it to myself, I do find Irish words in it. I hear (in a Munster accent) the words dearbhán saothrán. Dearbhán means a voucher, as in a card exchangeable for a certain amount of money in a bookshop or a restaurant and saothrán means a culture, specifically a culture of bacteria or fungus on a Petri dish.
Neither of…
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