A little bit of Culture...  Poetry from soc.culture.irish

Dánta na hÉireann  (poems composed in Irish)

Posted by K E Dennis
on:    9 April 1998

...another by Anonymous (that very prolific writer) - a folk poem dating to at least the 17th century.

 

Amharc        
Gan ainm 
An Duanaire 1600 - 1900 (Poems of the Dispossessed)
edited by Sean Ó Tuama
Dublin: The Dolmen Press / Bord na Gaeilge, 1981
  A Glance - translation  by Thomas Kinsella

Duibhe id mhailghibh, grios id ghruadhaibh,
     gurma id roscaibh, réidhe it fholt,
gaoth ag iomramh do chúil chraobhaigh,
     úidh fhionnbhan an aonaigh ort.

Mná fear nach aidmheochadh t’fhéachain
     ar th’aghaidh ag fighe a bhfolt,
slighe ag méaraibh tré dhlaoi dhaghfhuílt
     ag mnaoi ag déanaimh amhairc ort.

A Glance
trans., Thomas Kinsella

Black of brow, with cheeks aglow,
     blue of eye, with hair so smooth,
wind rowing through your parted locks
     - fine women at the fair are watching.

Wives, pretending not to look
     plait their hair in front of you.
With fingers through her lovely hair
     one of them is studying you.

--- The End ---

Questions? Comments? -K. E. Dennis

Dánta na hÉireann  (poems composed in Irish)

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