Deirdre of the Sorrows

love or life

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 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. 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 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

Posted By ninawho at Wed 10 Dec 2008, 11:21 AM in Deirdre of the Sorrows || 5 Replies