{"id":1750,"date":"2011-12-23T08:51:25","date_gmt":"2011-12-23T15:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/?p=1750"},"modified":"2011-12-23T08:51:25","modified_gmt":"2011-12-23T15:51:25","slug":"happy-solstice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/?p=1750","title":{"rendered":"Happy Solstice!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I don&#8217;t have full-blown SAD but I definitely feel the waning light. Last night, after we celebrated the Solstice (I made a butternut squash tart, we put the candles on the tree, and opened the first of our presents), I climbed into bed at 7:30 and slept for twelve hours straight. I&#8217;m also mainlining chocolate. Even in California, winter is something you feel.<\/p>\n<p>In honor of the season here is one of my favorite poems, by Nuala N\u00ed Dhomhnaill (first in the original Irish and then translated by Paul Muldoon). It&#8217;s actually only the first bit of the poem, &#8220;Feis,&#8221; which is quite raunchy and depends for its symbolism on an understanding of the architecture of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Newgrange\">Newgrange<\/a>: the Irish prehistoric monument constructed in such a way that only once a year, at dawn on the winter solstice, does the sunlight fully reach the inner chamber.<\/p>\n<p><em>Nuair a \u00e9ir\u00edonn t\u00fa ar maidin<br \/>\nis steallann ionam<br \/>\nseinneann ceolta s\u00ed na cruinne<br \/>\nistigh im chloigeann.<br \/>\nTaisteala\u00edonn an ga gr\u00e9ine<br \/>\ncaol is lom<br \/>\ns\u00edos an pas\u00e1iste dorcha<br \/>\nis tr\u00edd an bpoll<\/p>\n<p>sa bhfardoras<br \/>\nis rianann solas ribe<br \/>\nar an url\u00e1r cr\u00e9<br \/>\nsa seomra iata<br \/>\nis \u00edochtara\u00ed go l\u00e9ir.<br \/>\nAtann ansan is t\u00e9ann i m\u00e9id<br \/>\nis i m\u00e9id go dt\u00ed go l\u00edontar<br \/>\nle solas \u00f3rga an t-aireagal go l\u00e9ir.<\/p>\n<p>Feasta<br \/>\nbeidh na ho\u00edcheanta n\u00edos giorra.<br \/>\nRaghaidh achar gach lae if bhfaid is i bhfaid.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When you rise in the morning<br \/>\nand pour into me<br \/>\nan unearthly music<br \/>\nrings in my ears.<br \/>\nA ray of sunshine comes<br \/>\nslender and spare<br \/>\ndown the dark passageway<br \/>\nand through the gap<\/p>\n<p>in the lintel<br \/>\nto trace a light-scroll<br \/>\non the mud floor<br \/>\nin the nethermost<br \/>\nsealed chamber.<br \/>\nThen it swells<br \/>\nand swells until a golden glow<br \/>\nfills the entire oratory.<\/p>\n<p>From now on<br \/>\nthe nights will be getting shorter<br \/>\nand the days longer and longer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don&#8217;t have full-blown SAD but I definitely feel the waning light. Last night, after we celebrated the Solstice (I made a butternut squash tart, we put the candles on the tree, and opened the first of our presents), I climbed into bed at 7:30 and slept for twelve hours straight. I&#8217;m also mainlining chocolate. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1751,"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions\/1751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}