On 3/4/2008 8:45 AM, Féachadóir wrote:
We buried Biddy J yesterday.
[…]
Biddy was born into an Irish-speaking home, she learned English later. In her 60s, as she tells it, she learned two new languages, Connacht and Munster Irish, through listening to Raidió na Gaeltachta. She was my oldest relative, and the oldest woman in the Glen.
[…]
Irish is a living language, no matter how much it annoys some of the contributors here. Biddy is gone, but her legacy lives on in those I heard speaking Irish, young and old, over the last two days. She was born in a country where people were prosecuted for writing in her native tongue. She died in a country where her language had equal rights.
That's all I have to say.
I'm sorry for your trouble...: may her memories & stories live on for generations to come, as it is sure her language will.
|
Ag Críost an síol Gan ainm |
An Duanaire 1600 - 1900 (Poems of the Dispossessed) edited by Sean Ó Tuama Dublin: The Dolmen Press / Bord na Gaeilge, 1981 |
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To Christ the seed - translation by Thomas Kinsella |
Ag Críost an síol, ag Críost an fomhair
in iothlainn Dé go dtugtar sinn.
Ag Críost an mhuir, ag Críost an t-iasc
i líonta Dé go gcastar sinn.
Ó flhás go haois, ó aois go bás
Do dhá láimh, a Chríost, anal tharainn.
Ó bhás go críoch nach críoch ach athfhás
i bParthas na ngrás go rabhaimid.
To Christ the seed, to Christ the crop
in barn of Christ may we be brought.
To Christ the sea, to Christ the fish
in nets of Christ may we be caught.
From growth to age, from age to death,
Thy two arms here, O Christ, about us.
From death to end – not end but growth –
In blessed Paradise may we be.
