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: 9 August 2005

Dom-fharcai fidbaide fál Gan ainm (early 9th century)	Early Irish Lyrics Eighth to Twelfth Century edited & translated by Gerard Murphy Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956
	The Scribe in the Woods - translation *by Gerard Murphy*

Dom-fharcai fidbaide fál
fom-chain loíd luin, lúad nád cél;
húas mo lebrán, ind línech,
fom-chain trírech ina n-én.

Fomm-chain coí menn, medair mass,
hi mbrot glass de dinngnaib doss.
Debrath! nom-Choimmdiu- coíma:
caín-scríbaimm fo roída ross.

The Scribe in the Woods
trans., Gerard Murphy

A hedge of trees overlooks me;
a blackbird's lay sings to me,
an announcement I shall not conceal;
above my lined book the bird's chanting sings to me.

A clear-voiced cuckoo sings to me,
goodly utterance, in a grey cloak from bush fortresses.
The Lord is indeed good to me:
well do I write beneath a forest of woodland.

--- The End ---