Happy
8/21/20263 min read
If I had a Euro for every time I've heard performers, before singing an Irish song, make a joke about Irish songs being always sad and gloomy, I could buy a new computer or at least a bottle of Barolo.
It is true that there are a lot of sad songs, but what better time to make a song or poem? Happy people have other thin
Here are some happy Irish and Scots Gaelic poems and songs.
Aoibhinn an Galar (Ireland/Scotland)
The love of a woman is a pleasant sickness;
there’s a thing that has not often been said.
With a desperate love inside of one,
this is the finest of lives ever fashioned by God.
Such a man lives according to his desire;
neither age or decay can take hold of him;
how could such a man ever die,
the man who is in love with a woman?
He is content with his own lordship,
he has small interest in goods or possessions;
he that gives and receives love,
lives always in the midst of delight.
This is from the text in Danta Gradha, edited by Tomas O Raithile, Cork University Press, 1968. The book was originally published in 1926.
And here's the text:
Aoibhinn an galar gradh mna,
ni do b'ánnamh da radh riamh;
gradh marbhthach don taobh is-toigh,
beatha is aoibhne dar chruth Dia.
Bidh se mar is aoibhne lais,
ni luigh orcra air na aois;
cionnas do gheabha se bas,
an ti do-bheir gradh do mhnaoi?
Leor leis fein a mhead de fhlaith;
beag a shuim i maith na i maoin;
an ti do-bheir 's do-gheabh gradh,
do fhan se go brath fa aoibh.
(It's missing accents; sorry.)
Another poem, translated from the text in Early Irish lyrics, edited by Gerard Murphy, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1956. This and Danta Gradha are two fantastic books, even though Danta Gradha gives only the bare texts, with no information on sources or versions.
The poem is imagined to have been spoken by Grainne to Diarmuid, in the context of the story of their love and elopement. It's not known whether it's a complete poem, or only a fragment. It occurs in 6 manuscripts, the earliest of the them from 12th century. In all of them, it forms part of an 11th century commentary (probably linguistic) on the 6th century religious poem Amra Cholum Chille, so it's survival is totally an accident. So many things were never written down, or if they were, then lost again in the great conflagration of the 17th century, or in the late 19th century when people threw out Irish manuscripts as useless. There must have been many equally wonderful poems.
Grainne to Diarmuid
There is one on whom it would be a joy to gaze;
for whom I would give this bright world;
all of it, all of it--let others call it an unequal bargain.
And last, a well-known Scottish Gaelic song, Braighe Lochiall. (The High Country of Locheil, which is west from Fort William.) Quick and fast translation. Before the translation, here's a modern arrangement by Rachel Walker. Part of the greatness of the song is the marriage of words and music. The translation by itself is feeble and bare.
Chorus:
I will go, oh, I will go,
I will go over
to the riverside meadow where the cows are,
to where I knew a girl.
(O theid, 's gun teid,
o theid mi thairis
go innis nam bo,
far an b'eol dhomh an ainnir.)
To the riverside meadows where the cows are,
to where I knew a girl,
to the High Country of Locheil
where the deer often bell.
and the little roe deer of the high peaks,
nimble and agile.
Woman with the smooth hair,
I gave you my promise.
My promise that will not fail
though we were forced to part.
A married woman's kerchief would suit you well,
pinned up at each side.
About the flawless face,
your blue eyes enticing.
Many a time we have been
in the sheiling in the glen,
in a little snug hut
with no door but brushwood
You're are skilled raising the calves
and gentleness was your way always.
When we would go to sleep,
our fire would not yet have died down.
My side by your side,
and we were tender-hearted and affectionate.
I will go,
oh, I will go.
Here's a link to the song being sung, from the great Tobar a' Dualchais site. Hit the "play arrow on the left.
Email : tighsagainne@fastmail.com (all lower case)
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