کوهولین

by W.B. Yeats, مسعود فرزاد (Translator)

نمایشنامه ای براساس روایت ایرلندی رستم و سهراب

این ترجمه نخستین بار در سال 1313 هجری شمسی که سال برگزاری جشن هزاره فردوسی در ایران بود در "فردوسی نامه" مجله مهر منتشر شد

نمایشنامه ای است که ویلیام باتلر ییتس - نویسنده ی ایرلندی برنده ی نوبل ادبیات سال 1923 - بر مبنای یکی از اسطوره های ایرلندی نگاشته است. این اسطوره معادل اسطوره ی رستم و سهراب در فرهنگ ما است. کوهولین که پهلوانی است نامدار از سر اجبار به پیروی از کنوهار، شاه شاهان، تن می دهد و برای حفظ تاج و تخت او شاهزاده ای مهاجم را می کشد اما در نهایت متوجه می شود که او پسر خود او و فرزند زنی است که بسی دوستش می داشت

Genres: Plays, Drama, Classics, School, Irish Literature, Theatre, Ireland

45 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1903

About the author

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and dramatist, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years Yeats served as an Irish Senator for two terms. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and along with Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for what the Nobel Committee described as "inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation." He was the first Irishman so honored. Yeats is generally considered one of the few writers who completed their greatest works after being awarded the Nobel Prize; such works include The Tower (1928) and The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1929).

Yeats was born and educated in Dublin but spent his childhood in County Sligo. He studied poetry in his youth, and from an early age was fascinated by both Irish legends and the occult. Those topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and those slow paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser and Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as to the Pre-Raphaelite poets. From 1900, Yeats' poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life.
--from Wikipedia

Reviews

[Amin · Rating 5 out of 5]

For all its shortness On Baile's Strand is one of the greatest tragedies ever written. The work is equal in grandness to the best poems of Yeats. Cuchulain's unwitting and tragic filicide reminds one of Shahnameh's Rostam. The play can be seen as the tragic encounter between commitment (represented as a Blind Man) and choice. The final scene in which Cuchulain fights the sea waves is epic in magnitude and sublime in effect.

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

This play follows a part of the legend of classic Irish hero Cuchulain, who was one of the figures that the Celtic Revival movement (of which Yeats was a part) tried to revive in order to promote Irish nationalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. There's much in this play that emphasizes the glory of Cuchulain from traditional Irish mythology, meaning that when this was put on the stage in 1904, it was part of an attempt to re-construct a national body of myth/literature as part of the anti-colonial movement.

And this anti-colonial aspect is latent in the play itself. The high plot revolves around Conchubar's (the high king) attempt to bind Cuchulain with an oath of obedience. Cuchulain is initially reluctant, making arguments about the importance of his freedom and independence, while Conchubar makes arguments about the importance of order and control--it's not hard to see how these positions mirror those of Irish nationalists on the one hand and British imperialists on the other. And while it's somewhat strange that Conchubar--a legendary Irish figure in his own right, typically depicted as a great ruler--is implicitly aligned with the forces of British imperialism, the fruits of this logic are borne out when Conchubar forces Cuchulain to accept the challenge from Aife's son, despite Cuchulain wanting to befriend the boy. Upon defeating the young man, Cuchulain is driven mad when he discovers that it was his own son. In this sense, the play implicitly argues that if Ireland agrees to give up its struggle for independence and accept being bound by Britain, this will destroy the future of Ireland's children--i.e., the future of the nation.
https://youtu.be/fFwMYnYPLwo

[Ana Moseres]

kind of whack of me to log this seeing as it's like 2 pages long, and yet if I don't, I'll certainly forget about it forever. Which obviously does not speak well on this play. It was fine enough, but I felt like I'd heard this story 100 times already, the language didn't take me in, and the idea of seeing it performed sounds extremely boring. I'm sure someone could convince me that it did something extremely special with Irish mythology, or was relevant to the literary world in some monumental way, or is exemplary of Yeats's iconic style, or something like that... but for now, it's just a play that I read, and I didn't fall in love with it. I would say I'd read more by Yeats to form a better opinion, but I am still a baby who doesn't like poetry, so I probably won't any time soon. Sorry Yeats.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok. It honestly reads more like a short story than a play. And it is very short. I found the Fool and Blind Man to be disconcerting as they break up the action and really seem to serve little purpose other than to give one piece of information at the end of the play. It does show what being forced to conform can do and being sworn to blindly obey. Therein lies the tragedy of the tale. That and others not being willing to listen to you and why you think this is a time to not conform. The crowd is just as much at fault as the one with the sword.

[Effy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird decision to turn such a tragic tale into a comedy.

I do like these two bits though:

“It’s well that we should speak our minds out plainly,
For when we die we shall be spoken of
In many countries. We in our young days
Have seen the heavens like a burning cloud
Brooding upon the world, and being more
Than men can be now that cloud’s lifted up,
We should be the more truthful.”

“Life drifts between a fool and a blind man
To the end, and nobody can know his end.”

[Yoana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprisingly lovely. It tells the same story as Yeats's poem about Cuchullain fighting the sea, but as a one-act drama. It has a curiously changing tone from the dramatic exchanges between the kings to the mundane and materialistic conversation between the Blind Man and the Fool, though the two dialogues complement each other and ultimately lead to the tragic conclusion.

[Jericho]

Read for my honours thesis! Pretty interesting but I don’t think I could review it as an actual piece of literature since I read it as a primary source about Yeats’ very weird position in the Irish Nationalist movement at the time. Pretty great at positioning Cuchulain as a sad sad man having a horrible time, though.

[Summer · Rating 5 out of 5]

My introduction to Yeats. Thorough consideration of the tragedy that arises when the violence that once upheld a society is domesticated and curbed. Many binaries masterfully depicted and questioned in this little play.

[Conor Doonan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, On Baile’s Strand does little to expand on The Death of Aife’s Only Son. It’s a fine play, but Yeats could have focused more on the tragedy of it than the comic subplot. Some of the humanity of the situation is lost.

[S D]

meh

[شایان عمان · Rating 3 out of 5]

یک نمایشنامه تک پرده ای جذاب با محوریتی تراژدیک و کمی هم مانند روایت رستم و سهراب دز شاهنامه پارسی .
خوب بود ، پیشنهاد میشه

[angelina · Rating 5 out of 5]

despite how short it is, i really enjoyed this one, very dramatic tragedy

[caitlyn :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

old man really just wanted to yap

[oswald · Rating 4 out of 5]

mighty... the tragedy of a day fills in a picture of the tragedy of several lifetimes, all brilliantly framed. A number of thematic parallels could be identified that reach beyond the world of Irish myth in which this takes place -- Tiresias, Lear, Macbeth etc. -- but Yeats makes it all unquestionably his own.

[Mohammad Ali Shamekhi · Rating 4 out of 5]

توصیفات جذابی درش هست - مثلا آنگاه که کوهولین به توصیف اویفه زن محبوبش می پردازش و از جنگاوری او سخن می گوید. دیگر جنبه ی اثربخش این نمایشنامه پایان بندی آن است. افزون بر اینها دو شخصیت دلقک و کور هم جذابیت های خود را دارند.

[Liam Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple, short but impressive showdown with a twist. Do you think the High King knew?

[Brooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

basically this play reminded me that id read about aoife and schathach and cuchulain in middle school and now i cant stop thinking abt those nicolas flamel books & what a cool concept they had lol