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Originally Posted by
ninawho
Hi~ I am new and I'm J. M. Synge's fan, and I am here to ask some questions about Deirdre.:yawnb:
I'm not an English native speaker, so when I ask, there may be some idioms or phrase which are no problem for you but can't-figure-it-out for me, and I don't even major in English...so, please forgive me if I ask stupid questions.
OK, I've done apologizing...:p
No need to apologise! :)
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It did took me a while to get used to Synge's "peasant language," but there are still many lines I can't figure out the meaning.
Here is the one:
in Deirdre, act Ⅱ
Deirdre told Naisi they are going back to Emain, and she said: "There are many ways to wither love as there are stars in a night of Samhain, but there is no way to keep life or love with it a short space only...It's for that there's nothing lonesome like a love is watching out the time most lovers do be sleeping...It's for that we're wetting out for Emain Macha when the tide turns on the sand."
First of all, I don't quite understand what "there is no way to keep life or love with it a short space only" means. Does it mean that since life is short, so that love is short as well, or does it mean that love is easy to wither, but life (or death), above all, is the most destructive power?
and, what does "a short space" indicate?
Second of all, what does "there's nothing lonesome like a love is watching out the time most lovers do be sleeping" means? Does it mean that sleep waste time?? when you can use it to love...
the more I read them, the more I'm confused about what these lines "generally" mean, not to say to "interpret" them.
It could do with the fact that Conchubor had sent an errand of peace to Naisi and his brother, who foolishly believed it, but deirdre fears their return and is trying to hint at him that there are many ways to kill love, and that by going back after only a short space in time together will kill either their love or their lives. Its because of this that she does be awake at night when she should be asleep in his arms, and thats the reason why they are their in Alba and not at home, fear for their lives.
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These lines are the turning point in act 2, and by these lines, Synge shifts the power of deciding whether they are going back to Emain from Naisi's hand to Deirdre's, but since that I can't really follow Deirdre's (or Synge's) thoughts, on what reason did she decide to go back and why, I really got lost in these metaphors and similes...
I think its more the fact that Naisi is so determind to return that she gives in and says "Okay then, lets go" and by saying they were returning she set the tide on the fail of their life together. If she had held out and refused, maybe he would have seen reason and stayed and when in the future if Conchubor asked for peace again it may very well have been the case. But she didnt, and they went to their deaths instead.
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I can feel that in Deirdre, Synge weaved so many dilemas and disappoints or wishes of his in real life into it, and so all the talking about love or life or death and seperation, can all be traced back to the similar situation of J. M. S. an Molly A.'s. And so that I think it is really important for me to make clear about this act Ⅱ...
long question, haha. Thanks for anyone who would like to exchange opinions with me to.
Nina
What a very good point. there is a lot in the play that makes you think of his relationship with Molly Allgood. They had such a strange relationship, and in a sense he "hid" it from the frowning faces of his family who would have disaproved and tried to end it. In that sense there is a bit of him in Deirdre, where Naisi shows Mollys beliefs that all will be well and he was worrying over nothing. But in the end they too were seperated by death.