Born: September 29th, 1949
Died: April 6th, 2026
The first thing that is often said about Gabriel Rosenstock is that as a writer he was prolific. This itself is an understatement. He was prodigiously prolific. It is estimated that he was the author of more than 180 books, but figures of between 300 and 400 are mentioned with regard to those he has edited or been involved in. The answer is nobody knows; maybe he didn’t himself.
But this glorious extravaganza of writing should not be the measure of his success, importance or influence. It is true that he wrote poetry both in conventional modern forms and as haiku and tanka, as well as copious translations (from languages of which he had several), plays, novels, essays, children’s literature, adaptations of folk and international stories, editions of proverbs and anecdotes and more or less anything that could be put down on paper. This variety, however, contained a sustained vision of a quest for wisdom, an engagement with a wide experience of spiritualities, and a love of nature, art, words and everything that is not dull.
After a childhood in Kilfinane, Co Limerick and most of his secondary schooling in Rockwell College, he first came to prominence as a poet in UCC. This was initially as part of what was known as the company of INNTI poets which also included Michael Davitt, Liam Ó Muirthile and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill.
Although they did readings and publicised together, they were never a movement, each being determinedly individual in style and concern. While many poets of that generation in the early 1970s looked to the great European tradition or to the beat poets of America, Gabriel Rosenstock did something entirely different. He looked east. This turn to the east, from where he drew inspiration and sustenance, marked a great deal of his work from then on and shaped most of his thinking.
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He was the first of the INNTI poets to have a collection of his own published, Susanne sa Seomra Folctha, in 1973. The title itself heralded a break from tradition, but this break became much clearer with his later collections, which followed rapidly. Books such as Om (1983) and Syójó (2001) show this, as does his invention of “Krishnamurphy”, who appears in several books and is a kind of wise, patient, calm but penetrating observer of the world.
[ Gabriel Rosenstock: file, fealsamh agus ceannródaíOpens in new window ]
This attraction of different strands can be seen in his version of the tales and sayings of Mullah Nasreddin, the wise fool, reflecting much of his own take on the world. Ólann mo Mhiúil as an nGainséis is a kind of travelogue through India, a country he knew well and visited several times with his family.
Nonetheless, despite his passion for India, he was awarded the Tamgha-I-Khidmat medal for services to literature by Pakistan. He could see the best of both traditions often masked by current affairs.
The most public manifestation of this journey through Asia was his championing of the haiku as a literary form. It was he who introduced it into Irish and promoted it not only through his own originals and translations, but he also wrote a handbook about its art and how to write it.
He saw that the sharp vision, the momentary snap of presence, the immediate shock of recognition that the haiku gives us, is very similar to those brief lyrics that the early Irish monkish scribes wrote on the margins of manuscripts. He was being traditional in a very different way.
Two of his many most recent books are Orang-Utan/Órang-Útan and Snowy Owl/Ulchabhán Sneachtúil which are described as bilingual ekphrastic haiku for older children, and where ekphrastic means inspired by works of art.
[ From the archive: ‘We are created in the image of God, so we’re all perfect’Opens in new window ]
They are meant to be “playful squibs” but also show his lifelong commitment to writing for children and teenagers. His own always youthful sense of wonder is evident in his many books for younger people, and this commitment is even more manifest in his decision to make some of his works available free of charge online.
For these age groups too, he was a regular translator, and we can include Tintin, Asterix and The Gruffalo among them. But his translations of poetry encompass a wide range of European, Latin American and Asian writers, including Peter Huchel, Muhammad Iqbal and Rabindranath Tagore. More intriguingly, he translated Seamus Heaney into Irish, giving an interesting twist to the tradition of translation that usually goes the other way around.
It is fitting that being a meticulous translator himself, managing to trap both the meaning and the spirit of a work in his own renderings, he was also served by two of our finest poets. His Rogha Dánta/Selected Poems were translated by Paddy Bushe, and another collection, Portrait of the Artist as an Abominable Snowman, was done by Michael Hartnett. There is much left untranslated, however, and when a Collected Poems comes it will be a massive undertaking for some publisher.
Most of his working life was spent in An Gúm, the State Irish-language publisher, and one must suppose that even there he was writing all the time between breaks or conversations. He honed a beautiful, clear style for himself in everything he wrote, one that was uncluttered, pellucid and poetic. It is curious that his body of work has not yet attracted its deserved critical examination, although Pádraig de Paor has done him justice in the study of his and Cathal Ó Searcaigh’s poetry Na Buachaillí Bána. It may be that it will take that criticism time to catch up with the creative writer, which it often does.
[ President Connolly pays tribute to poet Gabriel Rosenstock who has died aged 76Opens in new window ]
Despite his work ethic, he had time to devote himself to literary service. He was chairman of Éigse Éireann/Poetry Ireland and a member of the board of advisers to Poetry India, as well as receiving many literary honours, including being elected a member of Aosdána.
He is survived by his wife Eithne, his companion in life and literature, their daughters Saffron and Héilean, and their son Tristan. Their other daughter Éabha sadly died some years ago.
