It is not the literal past, the 'facts' of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.

Brian Friel

Tags: friel translations

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To remember everything is a form of madness.

Brian Friel

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Even if I did speak Irish, I’d always be considered an outsider here, wouldn’t I? I may learn the password but the language of the tribe will always elude me, won’t it? The private core will always be ...hermetic, won’t it?

Brian Friel

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Yes, it is a rich language, Lieutenant, full of the mythologies of fantasy and hope and self-deception - a syntax opulent with tomorrows. It is our response to mud cabins and a diet of potatoes; our only method of replying to... inevitabilities.

Brian Friel

Tags: irish

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...that it is not the literal past, the 'facts' of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.

Brian Friel

Tags: history identity language irish

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But remember that words are signals, counters. They are not immortal. And it can happen - to use an image you'll understand - it can happen that a civilisation can be imprisoned in a linguistic contour which no longer matches the landscape of... fact.

Brian Friel

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