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: 31 December 1998

Of course, there are many ... satisfactions to be found in the scholar's life. As was neatly outlined some 300 yrs ago by another advocate of the life of the mind - & other parts - quoted below. I've put the translation first this time, as a sweetener for the majority here. Even so, take a minute to look at the original: you don't need to have Irish to spot the rhymes & repetitions that give the whole thing an air of being sung to a rather jaunty tune.

Beatha An Scoláire Gan ainm (17th century)	An Duanaire 1600 - 1900 (Poems of the Dispossessed) edited by Sean Ó Tuama Dublin: The Dolmen Press / Bord na Gaeilge, 1981
	*The Scholar's Life - translation by Thomas Kinsella*

Aoibhinn beatha an scoláire
bhíos ag déanamh a léighinn;
is follas díbh, a dhaoine,
gurab dó is aoibhne in Éirinn.

Gan smacht ríogh ná rófhlatha
ná tighearna dá threise
gan chuid cíosa ag caibidil,
gan moichéirghe, gan meirse

Moichéirghe ná aodhaireacht
ní thabhar uadha choidhche,
's ní mó do-bheir dá aire
fear na faire san oidhche.

Do-bheir sé greas ar tháiplis,
is ar chláirsigh go mbinne,
nó fós greas eile ar shuirghe
is ar humann mná finne.

Maith biseach a sheisrighe
ag teacht tosaigh an earraigh;
is é is crannghail dá sheisrigh
lán a ghlaice de pheannaibh.

The Scholar's Life
trans. ,Thomas Kinsella

Sweet is the scholar's life
busy about his studies;
the sweetest lot in Ireland,
as all of you know well.

No king or prince to rule him
nor lord however mighty;
no rent to the chapterhouse,
no drudging, no dawn rising.

Dawn rising or shepherding
never required of him -
no need to take his turn
as watchman in the night.

He spends a while at chess,
and a while with the pleasant harp,
and a further while wooing
and winning lovely women.

His horse-team hale and hearty
at the first coming of spring;
the harrow for his team
is a fistful of pens.

--- The End ---