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The midnight verdict
Each of the translations in this book can be read for its own sake or as part of a triptych. By setting excerpts of Brian Merriman's Cuirt an Mhean Oiche within the acoustic of a classical myth (the story of Orpheus and Eurydice), Seamus Heaney provides a new and illuminating context for the eighteenth century Irish poem. For this paperback reissue, the poet has made some revisions in the text of the original Gallery Press edition.
Hardcover
First published December 14, 1993
About the author
Seamus Heaney
390 books1,112 followersWorks of Irish poet Seamus Justin Heaney reflect landscape, culture, and political crises of his homeland and include the collections
Wintering Out
(1972) and
Field Work
(1979) as well as a translation of
Beowulf
(1999). He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995.
This writer and lecturer won this prize "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past."
Heaney on Wikipedia.
This writer and lecturer won this prize "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past."
Heaney on Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 6, 2016
In a brief translator’s note Heaney refers to this slender volume as The Midnight Court. A better title, I think. A verdict is done, a decision made, whereas a court is a place for argument and these three excerpts are more an argument than a decision.
The volume includes two translations from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, “Orpheus and Eurydice” and “The Death of Orpheus,” sandwiching one from the Irish poet Brian Merriman, the title translation. Orpheus loses his true love on their wedding day, poisoned by the bite of a snake. He goes to the underworld to retrieve her. The lords of the underworld swayed by his grief and the magic of his music allow her to leave, though she must trail behind Orpheus and he must not look back until they have returned to the world of the living. He does, of course, look back and loses his love again to death.
The middle excerpt tells the story of a swain’s dream in which he is brought before a court of goddesses to stand trial for all Irishmen who withhold their love--a crime to which Frank McCourt once referred to as the "lack of the Irish." He does not do well. The court renders a verdict of frightful rampage on his person and dismemberment. He awakes, relieved but in tact. Orpheus death, on the other hand, comes at the hands of such a mob of denied women, would-be lovers driven mad by his refusal to accept any woman’s affection other than Eurydice's. They shred him like an old dress reduced to rags and instantly regret their fury, helped by the god Bacchus who turns them to deep-rooted trees.
Meanwhile, Orpheus’s shade “fled underneath the earth / Past landmarks that he recognized, down paths / He’d traveled on the first time, desperately / Scouring the blessed fields for Eurydice. / And when he found her, wound her in his arms / And moved with her, and she with him, two forms / Of the one love, restored and mutual— / For Orpheus now walks free, is free to fall / Out of step, into step, follow, go in front / And look behind him to his heart’s content.” So, a happy ending.
Heaney is a masterful translator, making each of the excerpts work alone and as a kind of a sequence. But the thematic connection's working doesn’t make it more than an interesting exercise—showcasing the universal facts of love, longing, curiosity, freedom, responsibility, revenge and the jumbled soup they make, rather than a significant work. What really binds the Merriman to the Ovid beyond a theme? How does the middle speak to the ends? Well, it’s Heaney so it's more interesting than a mortal's exercise because the narrative language is so rich without show and the mind behind the words so respectful and incisive that it is a high order literary exercise and one that allows the reader to revisit Ovid and be introduced to Merriman.
The volume includes two translations from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, “Orpheus and Eurydice” and “The Death of Orpheus,” sandwiching one from the Irish poet Brian Merriman, the title translation. Orpheus loses his true love on their wedding day, poisoned by the bite of a snake. He goes to the underworld to retrieve her. The lords of the underworld swayed by his grief and the magic of his music allow her to leave, though she must trail behind Orpheus and he must not look back until they have returned to the world of the living. He does, of course, look back and loses his love again to death.
The middle excerpt tells the story of a swain’s dream in which he is brought before a court of goddesses to stand trial for all Irishmen who withhold their love--a crime to which Frank McCourt once referred to as the "lack of the Irish." He does not do well. The court renders a verdict of frightful rampage on his person and dismemberment. He awakes, relieved but in tact. Orpheus death, on the other hand, comes at the hands of such a mob of denied women, would-be lovers driven mad by his refusal to accept any woman’s affection other than Eurydice's. They shred him like an old dress reduced to rags and instantly regret their fury, helped by the god Bacchus who turns them to deep-rooted trees.
Meanwhile, Orpheus’s shade “fled underneath the earth / Past landmarks that he recognized, down paths / He’d traveled on the first time, desperately / Scouring the blessed fields for Eurydice. / And when he found her, wound her in his arms / And moved with her, and she with him, two forms / Of the one love, restored and mutual— / For Orpheus now walks free, is free to fall / Out of step, into step, follow, go in front / And look behind him to his heart’s content.” So, a happy ending.
Heaney is a masterful translator, making each of the excerpts work alone and as a kind of a sequence. But the thematic connection's working doesn’t make it more than an interesting exercise—showcasing the universal facts of love, longing, curiosity, freedom, responsibility, revenge and the jumbled soup they make, rather than a significant work. What really binds the Merriman to the Ovid beyond a theme? How does the middle speak to the ends? Well, it’s Heaney so it's more interesting than a mortal's exercise because the narrative language is so rich without show and the mind behind the words so respectful and incisive that it is a high order literary exercise and one that allows the reader to revisit Ovid and be introduced to Merriman.
May 27, 2023
In typical fashion, Heaney’s brilliance as a translator is at full display here. This piece is a merging of the death of Orpheus from Ovid’s metamorphosis with Merriman’s The Midnight Court to create a piece which his whole original and different from the source material. The result is a poem which intriguingly explores gender and sex in society by subverting the norms of both and is perhaps best rest in conjunction with Heaney’s other works on the topic (namely The Burial at Thebes and The Testament of Cresseid). Though hard to find, I would say this work is definitely worth a read!
August 24, 2019
Interesting read but I have to research Curt an Mhean Oiche before I can give a full review ( This sounds arrogant I'm afraid)
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January 20, 2020Interesting - Heaney juxtaposes sections of the story of Orpheus with an Irish poem, Cúirt an Mheán Oíche. His translations feel very fresh and lively.
February 26, 2020
Simply Excellent and typical of Heaney's genius. No more may be said.
February 6, 2026
A strange and dark tryptic (two excerpts of Ovid which surround a two hundred year old Irish poem) which is nevertheless compelling.
August 27, 2009
Yeah okay... what?
I remember reading one of Heaney's poems, Digging, back in like ninth grade, and that I remember it is a testament to its goodness: I didn't like nuffin back then. I've also come across him recently in the poem Mid-Term Break, which is powerful. I gather that most of his work is translation, however, which is how this book came about. It is the story of Orpheus and Eurydice from Ovid, with an Irish poem in the middle. Weird stuff, man.
Reminds me that the best Irish writers (Joyce, Yeats) were still, uh, English.
I remember reading one of Heaney's poems, Digging, back in like ninth grade, and that I remember it is a testament to its goodness: I didn't like nuffin back then. I've also come across him recently in the poem Mid-Term Break, which is powerful. I gather that most of his work is translation, however, which is how this book came about. It is the story of Orpheus and Eurydice from Ovid, with an Irish poem in the middle. Weird stuff, man.
Reminds me that the best Irish writers (Joyce, Yeats) were still, uh, English.
November 23, 2012
Heaney's clever juxtaposition of the pieces of these two old stories makes for an effective and, at times, strikingly evocative read.
February 9, 2013
Bought this for my A330 EMA; currently winging its way from the USA.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews