Geibheann Poem Translation and Analysis

You can find the English translation of Géibheann, plus our analysis of it, below.
Prisoner
I’m an animal
wild animal
from the tropics
my beauty
is renowned

I tame trees of the forest
time
with my roar

but now
I am fallen
considering the three eyes
of that lone tree over there

hundreds of people come
every day
who’d do anything
for me
but let me out

Prisoner (what the speaker feels they have become)

I’m an animal
wild animal (the speaker’s speech and language-use is broken, reflecting the fact that they are an animal)
from the tropics
my beauty
is renowned

I tame trees of the forest
time
with my roar (sets up the contrast between the narrator’s magnificence and their seemingly hopeless situation)

but now
I am fallen (a metaphor; the speaker has ‘fallen’/surrendered to their fate; they have lost hope)
considering the three eyes
of that lone tree over there (this reads as if a creature is watching them from the tree, something the speaker used to tame with their roar; 2 eyes for the creature, 1 for the tree itself, perhaps)

hundreds of people come
every day
who’d do anything
for me
but let me out (freedom is the only thing the speaker desires from their observers; ‘who’d do anything’ is ironic also; they do nothing for the speaker but compound his situation and sense of imprisonment).

You’re done! Next up – Géibheann Caitlín Maude Ardleibheal

notes by an Irish teacher!