Stephen Griffin
Stephen Griffin is twenty years old and from Limerick City. He enjoys a diverse array of literature which includes the works of Raymond Chandler, Graham Greene, Frederico Garcia Lorca, John Keats and J.R.R. Tolkien. His greatest ambition is to be paid money for writing poetry and he hopes that "One day perhaps a publisher will read my novel, notice that it's not about wizards, housewives or vampires and disagree with me and say that it's actually good." The poem below was written by Stephen with the assistance of his close friend Cristina Quintanilla who provided the Catalan translations in the poem.
La Bella vida de Cristina
The gold leaves of autumn and the green leaves of spring,
the bright laughter of children and the swallows who sing
the stars of cold skies that look down in the night
we travel and sing of a smile that shines bright:
“La vida es bella com una cistella,
Com l'olor de la flora o la llum de l'estrella,
El vent de l'oest i el sol de la prada,
Res tan bella com la Cris somrient i calmada!” [1]
[1]
“Life is beautiful like a basket,
Like the scent of the flower or the light of the star,
The wind of the west and the sun on the meadow,
Nothing so beautiful as Cris smiling and calm!”