{"id":152842,"date":"2021-06-02T13:23:50","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T17:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=152842"},"modified":"2021-06-02T15:36:45","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T19:36:45","slug":"history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/","title":{"rendered":"History Is the Throbbing Pulse: An Interview with Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo: Br\u00edd O\u2019Donovan.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the work of the Irish writer Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa, history is amorphous, a living thing that frequently bleeds into or interrupts the lives of those in the present day. \u201cThe past has come apart\u2009\/\u2009events are vagueing,\u201d reads the Mina Loy epigraph that begins N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa\u2019s sixth collection of poetry, <\/em>To Star the Dark<\/a>, published earlier this year. In <\/em>A Ghost in the Throat<\/a>, a hybrid of autofiction and essay first published by Dublin\u2019s Tramp Press and out this week in the U.S. from Biblioasis, she writes, \u201cTo spend such long periods facing the texts of the past can be dizzying, and it is not always a voyage of reason; the longer one pursues the past, the more unusual the coincidences one observes.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A Ghost in the Throat served as my introduction to N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa\u2019s writing, and it is a work I have returned to repeatedly over the months since I initially encountered it, mulling over its questions of history, motherhood, obsession, and the porousness of time, place, and identity. The book twines together N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa\u2019s harrowing experience following the birth and near loss of her fourth child with the life of Eibhl\u00edn Dubh N\u00ed Chonaill, an eighteenth-century Irish noblewoman who, upon discovering her husband\u2019s murdered body, drank handfuls of his blood and composed an extraordinary poem lamenting his loss. \u201cWhen we first met,\u201d writes N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa, \u201cI was a child, and she had been dead for centuries.\u201d What follows is a tale of love across eras, as N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa painstakingly devotes herself to researching the overlooked pieces of N\u00ed Chonaill\u2019s life and translating her \u201cCaoineadh Airt U\u00ed Laoghaire.\u201d The poem appears in its entirety at the book\u2019s end, translated from the Irish by N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa herself.<\/em><\/p>\n

The following conversation happened over Zoom in early April from my living room in Brooklyn and N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa\u2019s home in Cork. Even through the screen, N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa is a warm and inviting presence, leaping up frequently to grab books from the stuffed shelves behind her and reading snatches of poetry aloud to illustrate her points. At the time, Ireland was in the midst of its fourth month in severe lockdown due to the ongoing COVID<\/small>-19 crisis while New York was beginning to announce its vaccination process. Since then, both the U.S. and Irish governments have eased restrictions, and as time moves forward, it is strange to think that this moment of global crisis and fear is, for some parts of the world, beginning to vague into history, too.<\/em><\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

A Ghost in the Throat<\/em> is your first book-length work of prose. Why did you choose prose specifically for this work?<\/p>\n

DOIREANN N\u00cd GHR\u00cdOFA<\/p>\n

I suppose I feel as though the form chose me. When I reflect on the path to writing this book in terms of craft, I\u2019m struck by how often I felt driven by the book itself rather than vice versa. I felt as though the book were showing me the form it needed to be in, and because this is my first work of prose, that was very unfamiliar to me. There were points in the process where I felt as though I should be more in control, but anytime I tried to fight against that sense of a natural unfolding, the process very quickly taught me that resisting was a mistake. The book became itself when I was able to relinquish that sense of control. I know how frustrating it is, as a writer, to read interviews where people articulate their process like that. \u201cThis character just wanted to be who they were\u201d\u2014it can be irritating to hear authors speak like that, and yet, this is simply the truth of this book\u2019s becoming. It insisted<\/em> on itself. <\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

It sounds almost like the book possessed you, in a way.<\/p>\n

N\u00cd GHR\u00cdOFA<\/p>\n

A little bit. I\u2019m always a little uncertain how open I can be about how strange and disorientating the process was, because it does sound strange when I say it out loud. But it all felt far less strange when I was in the grip of it. This book insisted on itself with a real force, and there were times when I felt almost powerless in the face of it. I have the sense that that\u2019s a rare experience, and I think I\u2019m probably very fortunate that my first book of prose came to me in this way.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

How long of a process was it?<\/p>\n

N\u00cd GHR\u00cdOFA<\/p>\n

I tend to have a number of works that I\u2019m focused on at any one time, so I was working on A Ghost in the Throat<\/em> over the same years that I was working on my latest poetry book, To Star the Dark<\/em>. Because I was working on both books side by side, it\u2019s difficult to say precisely how much time it took me to write A Ghost in the Throat<\/em>. Whenever I was encountering a difficulty with one book, I would swerve into the other. So they were written in parallel. I find that way of working very satisfying.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

In both books, the boundaries of history blur into real life\u2014the new poetry collection begins with that Mina Loy quote, and there\u2019s also the poem in which you\u2019re looking at the photograph of the girl in 1888 and you write, \u201cHer hand exists only in pixels now, this girl\u2009\/\u2009who arrives by optic nerve to live a while\u2009\/\u2009in my mind.\u201d What do you feel is the impact of history on your work?<\/p>\n

N\u00cd GHR\u00cdOFA<\/p>\n

I feel like it\u2019s only as we progress through a life in art, or a life in literature, that we begin to understand what our core concerns are, and history is the throbbing pulse of my work as an artist. In all of my books, in all of my poems, I return again and again to our sense of the past and what questions the past is asking of us, and the ways in which we attempt to answer those questions, just by being who we are in the environments we\u2019re born to. I think that\u2019s maybe why that line of Mina Loy\u2019s moved me so much\u2014\u201cthe past has come apart\u2009\/\u2009events are vagueing\u201d\u2014because I feel that sense of fracture, too, the mosaic of the past and the sharp edges of it, and the sense of vagueing and blurring and the ways that sometimes, history has a real immediacy to it. There\u2019s a moment in A Ghost in the Throat<\/em> when I write about how Eibhl\u00edn Dubh N\u00ed Chonaill feels real to me\u2014she\u2019s as real as the dog barking behind the tall fence, or as real as the human chorus of the internet. These are things we don\u2019t necessarily see. At a superficial level, they\u2019re invisible to us, but we\u2019re aware of their presence and their heft within our reality, and I guess history feels like that to me. It feels that real.<\/p>\n

And then to grow up and live on a daily basis in a place like Ireland is to be confronted regularly with the facts of our history, with the ruins, with the brokenness and those sharp edges, with the ways people have tried to tell our history and the coherence they\u2019ve tried to mold from it, and the ways in which we can question that inherited history and make our own sense of it. For better or worse, I never really grew out of that sense of almost childlike enthusiasm or fascination with the past. I suspect that it\u2019s probably an ordinary part of growing up to become used to the fact that, okay, these streets in our city, many people walked these streets over many generations. You grow used to living an ordinary adult life without having those other lives interfere too much with your own mentality. But I was never really able to get used to that. It seems so strange and interesting to me that there were these other true, real lives that were lived in these same places. That, I reckon, is the soil from which my work grows, and it\u2019s difficult to avoid such thoughts here in Ireland because you\u2019re constantly confronted with visual reminders of the past. You walk out your door and you\u2019re tripping over some archaeological ruin.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of living history in Ireland.<\/p>\n

N\u00cd GHR\u00cdOFA<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly it. Particularly in our generation, there\u2019s a great sense of looking at recent Irish history and the darker elements of it all, the ways in which people were controlled and treated so poorly, the institutions that were created to dominate people\u2019s lives, the ways in which the state and religion behaved hand in hand to control people, and the ways in which that legacy is continuing now, in terms of systems like Direct Provision. These are all concerns that I think people living in contemporary Ireland are thinking about deeply as they attempt to effect real change here. It\u2019s a long road.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also such an emphasis on women\u2019s lived experiences in the book, and you\u2019re very much addressing the female reader. You use the phrase \u201cthis is a female text\u201d a few times, and you apply it to the book, to the body, to so many things.<\/p>\n

N\u00cd GHR\u00cdOFA<\/p>\n

The first time I heard that phrase occurred as it does in the book, as I was driving my daughter away from Kilcrea Abbey, which is a place Eibhl\u00edn Dubh N\u00ed Chonaill had spent time. This phrase, like an earworm or a pop song you hear on the radio, began to whirl around in my mind. \u201cThis is a female text.\u201d And I didn\u2019t initially understand what it meant. When I got home, I was compelled to write it down and begin asking myself, through the book, What<\/em> is a female text?<\/p>\n

As I look back on the book now, what I am most struck by about that refrain is the fact that it says this is a<\/em> female text. The emphasis within that utterance feels key to me, because it\u2019s a<\/em> female text\u2014it\u2019s just one<\/em> female text. There are so many different elements to lived female lives, and so many ways it feels to be female to many, many different people. So I guess all I could attempt to articulate was what it is to perceive a female text from the perspective of a middle-class, cis, white woman living in Ireland. Having written this book, I\u2019m still eager to learn about many, many, many more iterations of how female texts may be seen, felt, lived, and interpreted.<\/p>\n

That sense of owning the female experience, though, as it\u2019s described within the book, is quite radical in Ireland, given that there\u2019s deep and profound Shame, with a capital S<\/em>, instilled in Irish women going back many, many decades. So the choice I made to begin and end a book with the phrase \u201cthis is a female text,\u201d in such an unapologetic way, was kind of dangerous. I don\u2019t regret it at all, but I hope to take it as an opportunity to spring into other understandings of what it can be to live a female life.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

That multiplicity is so present in the text, too. I\u2019m excited to hear that you were also thinking of that multiplicity of what womanhood even is<\/em> to begin with.<\/p>\n

N\u00cd GHR\u00cdOFA<\/p>\n

You know, I think it\u2019s interesting to carry that curiosity about multiplicity, about what it is to live a life as a woman, into the process of writing a book\u2014to come to the end of the process and still be able to say, I don\u2019t fully understand this.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

And in the book, you have these dichotomies\u2014mother\u2019s milk and blood, say, or between languages\u2014but you\u2019re always blurring them. There\u2019s this translation across centuries. Could you talk about the process of translating Eibhl\u00edn Dubh N\u00ed Chonaill\u2019s poem? I know you\u2019ve translated some of your own work from the Irish to English. Do you approach translation differently when it\u2019s someone else\u2019s writing versus your own?<\/p>\n

N\u00cd GHR\u00cdOFA<\/p>\n

I do. They\u2019ve proven very different, the processes that are involved in translating my own poems versus someone else\u2019s poetry. I suppose I\u2019m kind of in my infancy as a literary translator, as well. So far, I\u2019ve embarked on translating only my own poems, the long Eibhl\u00edn Dubh N\u00ed Chonaill poem that appears at the end of A Ghost in the Throat<\/em>, and all the poetry of an Irish poet called Caitl\u00edn Maude. The process fascinates me, and I find the gulf between my approaches to translating my own work and translating another poet\u2019s work quite surprising. Sometimes astonishing, to be honest, because when I\u2019m translating my own poems, I almost take it as an opportunity to revisit a previous iteration of myself, listening really closely to what I was trying to say four years ago and then trying to say it again in the self I am now, in a different language.<\/p>\n

I sometimes wonder whether a previous version of myself, if she could be there to witness my translation, would argue against it. In other words, I tend to be quite adventurous in the ways I try to put English on my poems in Irish. Even that phrase itself, \u201cto put English on,\u201d is a really Irish way of describing translation. In Irish, it would be phrased as \u201cB\u00e9arla a chur ar<\/em>,\u201d so I\u2019m translating directly from Irish to English as I say that\u2014like putting the cloak of one language on another. But when I turn to translating poems by other poets, I tend to feel a very deep sense of connection, and a tension, and really profound, bone-level respect. I veer much more toward fidelity. What is fidelity, though, in literary translation?<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a great question.<\/p>\n

N\u00cd GHR\u00cdOFA<\/p>\n

We\u2019re just getting questions upon questions here.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

Multiplicities!<\/p>\n

N\u00cd GHR\u00cdOFA<\/p>\n

There you go. I proceed with great trepidation when I\u2019m translating other poets\u2019 work, and with great seriousness. Whereas when I\u2019m translating my own poetry to English, I take chances and I leap sideways and I do a cartwheel here and there. I feel like I can allow myself those flourishes because it\u2019s my work and I can give myself permission.<\/p>\n

My book Lies<\/em> was a dual-language publication, and there was a lot of mischief involved in my translations from Irish to English. I put in little clues for readers. There\u2019s one poem where a time appears on a digital clock, so in one language, I make it 01:37, and in the translation on the facing page, it becomes 01:38, so those digits reveal each other in some way, and if the reader doesn\u2019t speak both languages, there\u2019s a hint, or a little spark, acknowledging the strange twist a poem takes as it moves from one language to another.<\/p>\n

I tend to hide clues like that all over the place. I suppose the brief answer to your question is that when I\u2019m translating poems by other poets, I approach them very carefully, with great seriousness, but when I\u2019m translating my own work, I take it as an opportunity to get up to some mischief. It feels almost like a remix, sometimes, when I\u2019m translating one of my poems. The process allows me to approach the poem all over again. And that feels quite exhilarating.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

Is there anything you\u2019re reading now that you\u2019re enjoying?<\/p>\n

N\u00cd GHR\u00cdOFA<\/p>\n

I love American poetry. I came to writing when I was in my late twenties, and I learned my craft through reading, a process I recommend to anybody who can\u2019t embark on an M.F.A. You can teach yourself to write from home, and it will be fine. I\u2019ve done it. It\u2019s really fine, and it\u2019s actually an awful lot of fun, because you become attuned to voices on the page that begin to feel like they hold little fireworks for you.<\/p>\n

Once you start to find the books you\u2019re drawn to, you can go back to them again and again, and every time, they will hold further surprises. One book I keep on my bedside table is Lorine Niedecker\u2019s Collected Works<\/em>. I know she\u2019s a treasured voice on your side of the Atlantic, but hardly anyone speaks about her work over here, so it has just been like diving into a cool pool. If you could see my copy, every second page is dog-eared.<\/p>\n

So I have been reading, rereading, and re-rereading Lorine Niedecker, and the other book I love is Stay, Illusion<\/em>, by Lucie Brock-Broido. It\u2019s a really beautiful book, and funnily enough, I came across it\u2014let me see if I wrote the date on it when I found it \u2026 yes. I found this book in August 2019, in a secondhand bookshop on Valentia Island, off the coast of Kerry, in the south of Ireland. How amazing that Lucie happened to be there, waiting for me, on the shelves.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

It was fate!<\/p>\n

N\u00cd GHR\u00cdOFA<\/p>\n

I had come across a few of her poems online, and I loved them, so the second I saw this book I fell for it. If you were here now and we were in the same room, I would inflict several readings of her poems on you, but I\u2019ll spare you. [laughs<\/em>] There\u2019s something about the way both of these poets use language that feels like an actual spell is being cast, and I just get so swept up in their poems that I return to them again and again. Deborah Digges as well. I love her. And I love Rita Dove and Laura Kasischke and Layli Long Soldier and Ruth Stone. There\u2019s something really moving for me in a lot of American poetry, that I\u2019ve learned so much from, and that I return to again and again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rhian Sasseen is the engagement editor of\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review. Her work has appeared in\u00a0<\/em>3:AM Magazine,\u00a0<\/em>Literary Hub,\u00a0<\/em>The Point, and more.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa discusses her love of American poetry, the role history plays in her work, and the joys of translating herself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1637,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[907],"tags":[67827],"class_list":["post-152842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-work","tag-featured"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHistory Is the Throbbing Pulse: An Interview with Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa by Rhian Sasseen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa discusses her love of American poetry, the role history plays in her work, and the joys of translating herself.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"History Is the Throbbing Pulse: An Interview with Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa by Rhian Sasseen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"June 2, 2021 \u2013 Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa discusses her love of American poetry, the role history plays in her work, and the joys of translating herself.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-02T17:23:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-06-02T19:36:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/doireann2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rhian Sasseen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rhian Sasseen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"16 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rhian Sasseen\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/cd4cdd898b9bd883788058a4a507962f\"},\"headline\":\"History Is the Throbbing Pulse: An Interview with Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-02T17:23:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-06-02T19:36:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/\"},\"wordCount\":3129,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/doireann2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Featured\"],\"articleSection\":[\"At Work\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/\",\"name\":\"History Is the Throbbing Pulse: An Interview with Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa by Rhian Sasseen\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/doireann2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-02T17:23:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-06-02T19:36:45+00:00\",\"description\":\"Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa discusses her love of American poetry, the role history plays in her work, and the joys of translating herself.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/doireann2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/doireann2.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"History Is the Throbbing Pulse: An Interview with Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/cd4cdd898b9bd883788058a4a507962f\",\"name\":\"Rhian Sasseen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef27d16aa6953cb6d0bf06c05895ad342da3c50e3091c8c1de6c53db3e2bfa19?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef27d16aa6953cb6d0bf06c05895ad342da3c50e3091c8c1de6c53db3e2bfa19?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rhian Sasseen\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/rsasseen\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"History Is the Throbbing Pulse: An Interview with Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa by Rhian Sasseen","description":"Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa discusses her love of American poetry, the role history plays in her work, and the joys of translating herself.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"History Is the Throbbing Pulse: An Interview with Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa by Rhian Sasseen","og_description":"June 2, 2021 \u2013 Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa discusses her love of American poetry, the role history plays in her work, and the joys of translating herself.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2021-06-02T17:23:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-06-02T19:36:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":750,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/doireann2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rhian Sasseen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rhian Sasseen","Est. reading time":"16 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/"},"author":{"name":"Rhian Sasseen","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/cd4cdd898b9bd883788058a4a507962f"},"headline":"History Is the Throbbing Pulse: An Interview with Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa","datePublished":"2021-06-02T17:23:50+00:00","dateModified":"2021-06-02T19:36:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/"},"wordCount":3129,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/doireann2.jpg","keywords":["Featured"],"articleSection":["At Work"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/","name":"History Is the Throbbing Pulse: An Interview with Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa by Rhian Sasseen","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/doireann2.jpg","datePublished":"2021-06-02T17:23:50+00:00","dateModified":"2021-06-02T19:36:45+00:00","description":"Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa discusses her love of American poetry, the role history plays in her work, and the joys of translating herself.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/doireann2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/doireann2.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/history-is-the-throbbing-pulse-an-interview-with-doireann-ni-ghriofa\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"History Is the Throbbing Pulse: An Interview with Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/cd4cdd898b9bd883788058a4a507962f","name":"Rhian Sasseen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef27d16aa6953cb6d0bf06c05895ad342da3c50e3091c8c1de6c53db3e2bfa19?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef27d16aa6953cb6d0bf06c05895ad342da3c50e3091c8c1de6c53db3e2bfa19?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rhian Sasseen"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/rsasseen\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1637"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152842"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152850,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152842\/revisions\/152850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}