Sweeney Astray

Sweeney Astray: A Version from the Irish is a version of the Irish poem Buile Shuibhne written by Seamus Heaney, based on an earlier edition and translation by J. G. O'Keeffe.^[2][3][4] The work was first published in 1983 and won the 1985 PEN Translation Prize for poetry.^[5]

Sweeney Astray: A Version from the Irish

First edition
Author	Seamus Heaney
Language	English
Publisher	Field Day Publications, Derry/Dublin[1]
Publication date	1983-11-01[1]
Publication place	Ireland
Pages	85
ISBN	0-946755-03-5
OCLC	11339072
Dewey Decimal	821/.914 19
LC Class	PR6058.E2 S9 1984b

Photographer Rachel Giese and Heaney later collaborated to juxtapose selected passages of Heaney's translation with Giese's photographs of sites mentioned in the text, a work published as Sweeney's Flight.^[6][7]

Editions

• Seamus Heaney, Sweeney Astray: A Version from the Irish (Derry: Field Day Publications, 1983), ISBN 0-946755-03-5
• Seamus Heaney, Sweeney Astray (London: Faber, 1984), ISBN 0571133606
• Seamus Heaney and Rachael Giese, Sweeney's Flight: Based on the Revised Text of 'Sweeney Astray', with the Complete Revised Text of 'Sweeney Astray' (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1992); pp. 85–117 print the complete text, with revisions
• Seamus Heaney, Sweeney Astray (London: Faber and Faber, 2001) ISBN 0571210090; prints the revised text first published in Sweeney's Flight

Anthologisations

Selections from Sweeney Astray appear in:

• Seamus Heaney, New Selected Poems 1966–1987 (London: Faber and Faber, 1990), ISBN 9780571143726
• Seamus Heaney, Opened Ground: Poems 1966–1996 (London: Faber and Faber, 1998), ISBN 9780571262793

References

• Ireland portal

1. Saunders, Emma (2010). "Field Day Papers" (PDF). National Library of Ireland. p. 81. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
2. John, Brian (December 1985). "Sweeney Astray: A Version from the Irish by Seamus Heaney; Station Island by Seamus Heaney; Hailstones by Seamus Heaney". The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies. 11 (2): 89–91. doi:10.2307/25512647. JSTOR 25512647.
3. Downum, Denell (Fall–Winter 2009). "Sweeney Astray: The Other in Oneself". Éire-Ireland. 44 (3 & 4): 75–93. doi:10.1353/eir.0.0050. S2CID 162015621. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
4. O'Keeffe, James G. (1913), Buile Shuibhne (The Frenzy of Suibhne). Being the Adventures of Suibhne Geilt. A Middle-Irish Romance, Irish Texts Society, vol. XII, London: D. Nutt, 198pp – via Internet Archive
5. "PEN Translation Prize". PEN America. 10 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
6. McCarthy, Conor (2008). Seamus Heaney and Medieval Poetry. DS Brewer. p. 8. ISBN 9781843841418. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
7. Potts, Donna L. (2011). Contemporary Irish Poetry and the Pastoral Tradition. University of Missouri. pp. 63–64. ISBN 9780826219435. Retrieved 5 December 2014. Sweeney's Flight.