Skip to main content

Babel is beautiful

 

Babel is beautiful

 

Covid really hurt Dad & me

I was prevented from visiting him for two of his twilight years in Aged Care

Which I do understand

 

Anyway,

With his dementia

By the time I finally saw him

He’d deteriorated a good deal & death seemed to be approaching

He was basically non verbal by now

This dedicated ex-priest, school teacher & poet

 

One day at a visit soon after

He seemed really ‘down’

He managed a couple of abortive monosyllables

Over a few hours

He seemed ‘not really there’

& then stunned me

 

He uttered “suic”

I was shaken

I thought my meditative father had finally lost out to despair

As in “suicide”

 

For the next few days at work

Teaching, following on from my father

I had difficulty focussing

& the word stuck with me

Always in the back of my mind

For his remaining 2 bedridden years

& through the days of deep grief

I received for him his death as a kind of relief

 

Then a weird thing happened

A couple of years later

I was having a pint with an Irishman mate

We shared our family stories

Yunno good Irishmen are ‘straight up’

Anyway,

I told him about that incident with Dad’s “suic”: suicide plea

 

Then the Irishman, Ciaran, told me the Gaelic word “suac” (pronounced the same way)

Means “Up”

As in maybe my Irish father had slipped too low down in his bed, was uncomfortable & needed to be adjusted

 

I guess I’ll never know definitively what he meant

 

Gaelic

(Which only survived illegally in Eire under British Penal Law

When Ireland was enslaved* & starved)

Ended in my family

With us Australian kids

(Mum didn’t speak it & anyway my family has a complicated story)

I only know 5 or 6 Gaelic words, I think (maybe a couple more that I can’t think of right now?):

I know how to say my name, the name of my ancestors’ country, how to say blessings/cheers/good luck,

now how to say “up”

& a really good one, the Gaelic word for con man (literally ‘cute man’), which I can say but not spell

(If I meet ya & you’d like to know I’ll tell ya)

 

There are many languages in this city I live in

That I don’t know at all

So, if we speak ever

Please teach me a word or two

Much respect

As the 'Universal Declaration' (1948) should read: “in the spirit of siblinghood”+

 

 

*there are different types of ‘slavery’ & I do not attempt to claim that my ancestors had a monopoly on suffering. However relativising ‘genocides’ is not a game for me. I’ll just say a million were starved to death in ‘the famine’.

+ The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) uses the word “brotherhood”. I’m attempting to update the language of that sentence, in a more accurate way than others have done. (Some have ‘updated’ brotherhood to “community”, which I believe to be a dangerous dilution).

 

 

Published & Copyright Malachi Doyle 2025.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Apology for an evil word (draft)

  Apology for an evil word   by Malachi Doyle   I wrote/drew/painted this art book in Respekt for the child soldiers in Australia the British Empire AmiKKKa & of course Momma Afrika The French German Italian Dutch Spanish Empires Jesus Asia The Middle East South America Central America The Carribbean The Pacific Islands The former USSR countries The former Yugoslavian countries… My Nation’s & the world’s Asylum Seekers Child Detention Centres & the World’s poor country city neglected homeless  abused persecuted ignored ridiculed dismissed forgotten the murdered & raped mutilated totured  the beaten those who suffer the effects of Authoritarian & ‘soft’ Tyrannies skooling shitstems & other corrupt institutions Corporations in short the Vampires who suck “Earth Mother’s Women’s Child”rens’ blood,   I can’t express how I don’t wanna eat I have lost my appetite I wish ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Win ugly

  Win ugly I win ugly for some bloody reason I win ugly Life’s like footy Playin into the wind Some days you act like you wish it was over Some days you get the word from the coach & you take it in your stride Though you know ur only D grade Who thought you could play ruck rover & play a ruddy blinder Who thought you had it in ya? Not even ur mother Where did that come from? For you to walk like a king who knew you could sing? About pawning ur weddin ring When ur alone You ain’t nothin but alone Just don’t scam yourself Though u can’t get any help Yes I win ugly I like it in the wet Like a 10 year old boy Drawing with a stick in the dirt Go in hard & you don’t get hurt But a wise man once scribbled The hard is overcome by the soft Like stone in water Like watching a child’s first steps One day in the sun Feelin so privileged to have been there How’d you get so lucky? Ya win ugly Ya win ugly Ya win ugly Worth the price of admission To this valley of tears Coz every now ...
Post a Comment
Read more

In short, sharing versus selfishness

  In short, sharing versus selfishness   I have heard about The Yolngu people & gasped & sighed & dreamed & with my kite Tacked with & against the wind; Here in Dja Dja Wurrung country, Returning, Solitude for the Yolngu people Is prohibited It’s reason of ‘sorcery’ Offered Pride & closed heartedness Stunting & ending wisdom Without love, So much the better is Living communally on Country, The sounds of Nature: Birds animals water frogs Wind trees & bushes Yarnin & laughter: Relaxed, Part OF country, Not straining adrift to Examine & stand apart, & so, I write here Amongst friends, The sounds of The sitting room Food prepared, The birds the frogs A rabbit to be Air rifle shot & eaten People walkin & talkin & A sneeze The click tick Of finished oyster shells In the fireplace Chewing noises Pottery, Life in good Company Cooperation ...
Post a Comment
Read more