The anonymous love poem “Western Wind” was a revelation to me in college. It’s a simple, direct expression of an emotion that must be near universal.
“Pangur Bán” is that kind of poem. It was written by an anonymous monk in Irish in the 9th century about his white cat, Pangur. Each is absorbed in his own business: Pangur in the hunt for mice and the scholar in the hunt for insight. Since they don’t get in each other’s way, they are happy being alone together.
It’s that simple.
Lucas, the pound cat adopted by the Wise Woman years ago, is 17 and his business has turned into sleeping. He sleeps on my right side when I’m reading in bed. When it’s time for lights out, he moves to my left side, so he’ll wake up if I roll out of bed to get a midnight snack. (His rule is that snacks must be shared.) When I work in the morning, he sleeps at my feet. Since we don’t interfere with each other in conducting our business, it works just fine.
I thought of the poem because Lucas slept so soundly in my study I had to go get him and carry him to his spot on the bed when it was time to settle down for the night. It was a reminder that life is short, and that the lives of other creatures contribute to our happiness.
• Sources: You can find translations that strike me as wildly different by W.H. Auden, Seamus Heaney, Robin Flower, Paul Muldoon and Eavan Boland. I prefer Auden’s for the wrong reason: It was the text used by Samuel Barber in “The Monk and His Cat,” No. 8 in his “Hermit Songs.”
Heaney: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/48267/pangur-ban
Flower: https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/personal/pangur-ban.html
Muldoon: https://frombooksofpoems.blogspot.com/2007/11/two-translations-of-pangur-ban-anon.html
Boland: https://preferreading.wordpress.com/2016/02/13/sunday-poetry-pangur-ban/
And here’s Barber’s song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R940uNHVpy8
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