Translation Flashcards
The reburial of the Magdalenes. As if them being buried again could make up for their previous burial.
The soil frayed and sifted evens the score
These women came from all over Ireland. They were disregarded when buried like they were in the laundry.
There are women here from every county,
Just as there were in the laundry.
Alliteration. Describing the endless and monotonous workload in the laundry.
White light blinded and bleached out
Personification. Sense of irony because the steam was doing what the women of the laundries should have been doing.
steam danced
Around the stone drains and giggled and slipped across water
It is too late to do something to help them now. Instead they should shift their attention to finding their identities.
Assist them now, ridges under the veil, shifting,
Searching for their parents, their names
Another reference to their work. How poor their conditions were. As if water and soap could possibly wash away their ‘sins’
when water sank between the rotten teeth
Of soap
Everything has merged into one. One voice trying to tell the truth of what happened, their injustice. Time for people to know.
every grasp seemed melted, one voice
Had begun
Calling for justice. All the voices are now one
Until every pocket in her skull blared with the note
Hearing it all now. The pain of childbirth as they are now buried and life is continuing on.
not to hear it, sharp as an infant’s cry
While the grass takes root, while the steam rises
Perhaps the spirit of the Magdelene speaking now. Their pain cannot be translated, their suffering cannot be described.
Washed clean of idiom
Perhaps the spirit of the Magdelene speaking now. They lost their sense of identity in the laundry.
made my temporary name
Perhaps the spirit of the Magdelene speaking now. The curse of the laundry is now lifted
that spell
Lifted
Perhaps the spirit of the Magdelene speaking now. She can now be at peace, no longer held to this earth by her pain and suffering. Oppression has been unlocked.
Left the bunched keys I bore slacken and fall
I rise and forget - a cloud over my time
