A Little Bit Of Culture...

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

Dánta na hÉireann (poems composed in Irish)

Posted by K E Dennis
on: 11 August 1998

Caiseal Mumhan Gan ainm	An Duanaire 1600 - 1900 (Poems of the Dispossessed) Dublin: The Dolmen Press / Bord na Gaeilge, 1981
	*Cashel in Munster - translation by Thomas Kinsella*

Caiseal Mumhan
Gan ainm

Phósfainn thú gan bha gan phunt gan áireamh spré,
agus phógfainn thú maidin drúchta le bánú an lae.
'S é mo ghalar dubhach gan mé is tú, a dhaiaghrá,
i gCaiseal Mumhan is gan de leaaba fúinn ach clár bog déil.

Siúil, a chogair, is tar a chodladh liom féin sa ghleann:
gheobhaidh túfoscadh, leaba fhlocias is aer cois abhann;
beidh na srutha ag gabháil thariainn faoi ghéaga crann;
beidh an londubh inábhfochair, is an chéirseach dhonn.

Searc mo chléibh a thug mé féin duit is grá tri rún,
's go dtaga sé de chor sa tsaol dom bheith lá 'gus tú
is ceangal cléire eadriann aroan is an fáinne dlúth;
is dá bhfeicfinn féin mo shearc ag aon fheaar gheobhainn bás le cumha.

Cashel in Munster

I would wed you without cattle, without money or a counted dowry:
I would kiss you on a dewy morning of the lightening day.
I am sick with sadness not to be with you, beloved,
in Cashel in Munster - were our bed but a board of bog deal.

Come to the valley, my love: come lie with me;
shelter you'll find there, a flock bed, fresh air by the river;
the streams will flow beside us under tree branches;
the blackbird will be our neighbour, and the brown song-thrush.

The love of my heart I give you, my secret devotion.
May that day come, in life's course, when you and I
have the holy bond between us, and the steadfast ring -
for if I saw my love with another I would die of sorrow.

--- The End ---