Simon O Faoláin was born in 1973 in Dublin and raised in the West Kerry Gaeltacht (Irish speaking area) of Corca Dhuibhne. He has published four collections of poetry in Gaeilge (Irish) to date, the most recent being Iasachtaigh (Coiscéim 2022), as well as two books of literary translation. Amongst the awards his work has received are The Glen Dimplex Prize, Strong Prize, Walter Macken Prize, Colmcille Prize, and the Foras na Gaeilge Prize. He is the director of An Fhéile Bheag Filíochta (the Little Poetry Festival), an annual bilingual poetry festival taking place in West Kerry, and editor of the Irish-language literary journal Aneas. A professional archaeologist for many years, he now works as a freelance writer and translator.

WINNOWING

Here we go again,

trying to separate

life’s brilliant possibilities

from the cushy numbers

we’ve settled for.

In the end

none of us will know

whether it was the wheat or the chaff

that flew off in the wind.

Translated by Peter Sirr