Pangur Bán: The 1,200-Year-Old Irish Poem About A Monk And His Cat

This week I thought it would be good to share a completely anonymous poem that made its way into the top 100 Irish poems of all time. Sometimes in life, it is good to contribute without taking the credit.

So what is this Irish poem all about? “Pangur Bán” is an old Irish poem, written about the 9th century at or near Reichenau Abbey by an Irish monk about his cat Pangur Bán.

The poem was originally written in Irish but later translated by Seamus Heaney.

So yes, this is a poem about a cat chasing a mouse. I am sure it has a deeper meaning. However, it could simply just be that. Either way, have a read of my notes on this top Irish poem.

Pangur Bán

By Anonymous

TRANSLATED BY SEAMUS HEANEY
From the ninth-century Irish poem

Pangur Bán and I at work, / Adepts, equals, cat and clerk

Pangur Bán was written in Old Irish around the ninth century by an Irish monk working at or near Reichenau Abbey, on an island in Lake Constance in what is now Germany. It survives in a single manuscript, the Reichenau Primer, now kept at St Paul’s Abbey in the Lavanttal in Austria. Pangur is the name of the monk’s cat, and bán means white.

The poem sets the monk’s scholarship beside the cat’s hunting. The cat stalks mice and the scholar stalks meaning in difficult texts. Each is patient and focused, each gets a quiet thrill when the prey is caught, and neither envies the other. It is a warm, funny picture of two companions sharing a room and a craft, and one of the best loved poems to come out of the early Irish monasteries.

Seamus Heaney’s translation keeps the poem in short rhyming couplets and gives it a crisp, playful rhythm. It was published in Poetry magazine in April 2006. Older translations, such as Kuno Meyer’s from 1911, are out of copyright if you would like to compare versions.

Read the full poem: Pangur Bán, translated by Seamus Heaney, at the Poetry Foundation. It first appeared in print in Poetry magazine (April 2006).