''Sweeney Astray: A Version from the Irish'' is a version of the Irish poem ''

Buile Shuibhne ''Buile Shuibhne'' or ''Buile Suibne'' (, ''The Madness of Suibhne'' or ''Suibhne's Frenzy'') is a medieval Irish tale about Suibhne mac Colmáin, king of the Dál nAraidi, who was driven insane by the curse of Saint Rónán Finn. The insanity ...

'' written by

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish Irish poetry, poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966), his first m ...

, based on an earlier edition and translation by J. G. O'Keeffe. The work was first published in 1983 and won the 1985

PEN Translation Prize The PEN Translation Prize (formerly known as the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize through 2008) is an annual award given by PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to outstanding translations into the English language. It has been pr ...

for poetry. 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''.

Editions

* Seamus Heaney, ''Sweeney Astray: A Version from the Irish'' (Derry: Field Day Publications, 1983), * Seamus Heaney, ''Sweeney Astray'' (London: Faber, 1984), * 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) ; 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), * Seamus Heaney, ''Opened Ground: Poems 1966–1996'' (London: Faber and Faber, 1998),

References

{{Irish poetry 1983 poetry books 20th-century Irish literature 1983 poems Irish poems Works by Seamus Heaney