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The Mermaid in the Hospital

By Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill b. 1952 Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill

Translated By Paul Muldoon Read the translator's notes

She awoke

to find her fishtail

clean gone

but in the bed with her

were two long, cold thingammies.

You'd have thought they were tangles of kelp

or collops of ham.

"They're no doubt

taking the piss,

it being New Year's Eve.

Half the staff legless

with drink

and the other half

playing pranks.

Still, this is taking it

a bit far."

And with that she hurled

the two thingammies out of the room.

But here's the thing

she still doesn't get—

why she tumbled out after them

arse-over-tip...

How she was connected

to those two thingammies

and how they were connected

to her.

It was the sister who gave her the wink

and let her know what was what.

"You have one leg attached to you there

and another one underneath that.

One leg, two legs...

A-one and a-two...

Now you have to learn

what they can do."

In the long months

that followed,

I wonder if her heart fell

the way her arches fell,

her instep arches.

Source: Poetry (April 2007).

Biography

Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill is one of the most prominent poets writing in the Irish Gaelic language today. Her poetry has been translated into English by a number of well-known Irish poets, including Seamus Heaney, Medbh McGuckian, and Paul Muldoon. Irish themes, including language, are central to her poetry and range from ancient myths to small details of contemporary life. Her first collection was published in 1981, and the . . .

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