Conference tallis::celt

    It's been a long time since I learnt this one, so I will have to
    leave a few gaps, but for whatever it's worth, here goes:
    
    Who is that outside with the hoarse voice,
    Knocking on my closed door?
    
    I am Eamonn of the hills, who is tired wet and cold,
    From forever walking the mountains and valleys.
    
    O you poor dear, what can we do for you -
    Unless I give you part of my dress.
    
    ???????, forever following you,
    And we will both die.
    
    I am a long time out in the snow and the frost,
    But I have done harm to no one.
    
    (Cant translate this one, but basically it means
    'No matter how good I have been, I have nothing')
    
    I have no friend, which is a pity,
    who will call me early or late,
    
    So I will emigrate west overseas,
    As I have no relatives there.
    
    
    I have kept to the stanzas as you set them out, so I hope you can
    make sense of all this. While it is not a literal translation, the
    story is there in my feeble attempt.
    
    By the way, thanks for the memories - I learnt that poem about 30
    years ago!!
    
    Sean

I wasn't sure where to put this so I figured this is as good a place as any.

Moderators, feel free to move this to a more appropriate location if neccesary.


Anyway, recently I bought Enya's latest album, Shephard Moons, and its an
incredibly beautiful album. Very graceful, relaxing, and the instrumentation
is fantastic. Pianos, clarinets, violins, cornets, uillean pipes, etc.

A number of her songs are sung in Gaelic and the the lyrics are also in Gaelic.
Unfortunately, I don't speak Gaelic. Could someone help me to translate the
following which is currently my mail p-name:

E B U D AE
        ^^
        ||
        (this is actually one letter that looks like an A with an E attached)

Amharc, mn� ag obair l�'s mall san o�ch,
Ceolann siad ar laetha geal, a bh�,
Bealach fada annon's anall a cho�ch.


Thanks


Scott

>    <<< Note 617.2 by DELNI::FORTEN "Memories: Shadows without substance" >>>

>Anyway, recently I bought Enya's latest album, Shephard Moons, and its an
>incredibly beautiful album. Very graceful, relaxing, and the instrumentation
>is fantastic. Pianos, clarinets, violins, cornets, uillean pipes, etc.

I like it too!

>E B U D AE
>        ^^
>        ||
>        (this is actually one letter that looks like an A with an E attached)

Like this: � or this � ?

>Amharc, mn� ag obair l�'s mall san o�ch,
>Ceolann siad ar laetha geal, a bh�,
>Bealach fada annon's anall a cho�ch.

Can't help you with translating the Irish, although I recognise a few of the
words. I don't have a good Irish dictionary, but I know a little Scots
Gaelic and as Enya speaks Ulster Irish, from which Scots Gaelic is descended,
then it isn't too difficult to translate some of it. I have a translation of
the "book of days" song on the album

Craig

>             <<< Note 617.3 by SYSTEM::COCKBURN "Craig Cockburn" >>>

>I like it too!

Isn't it great!! She has a beautiful voice and the album photography/layout is
beautifully done.

>>>E B U D AE
>>>        ^^
>>>        ||
>>>        (this is actually one letter that looks like an A with an E attached)

>Like this: � or this � ?

Yeah, that's it. How'd you do that? I imagine its CTRL <space bar> <key stroke>
but I don't know the keystroke.

>>Can't help you with translating the Irish, although I recognise a few of the
>>words. I don't have a good Irish dictionary, but I know a little Scots
>>Gaelic and as Enya speaks Ulster Irish, from which Scots Gaelic is descended,
>>then it isn't too difficult to translate some of it. I have a translation of
>>the "book of days" song on the album

Craig, could you translate the "book of days" for me? That's another one that
I really like.

Thanks

Scott

    <<< Note 617.4 by DELNI::FORTEN "Memories: Shadows without substance" >>>

>Isn't it great!! She has a beautiful voice and the album photography/layout is
>beautifully done.

Do you have her other two albums? They are called "Enya" and "Watermark"

>Yeah, that's it. How'd you do that? I imagine its CTRL <space bar> <key stroke>
>but I don't know the keystroke.

The letters you want to merge are A and E. That is the keystroke you use!

>Craig, could you translate the "book of days" for me? That's another one that
>I really like.

here you go

� o�che go ho�ch, mo thuras  = From night to night, my journey
	(compare turas, pronounced "tooras" with the English word "tourist"
	 here is it pronounced "hooras" as it follows "mo" and "mo" causes
	 an "h" to be inserted as the second letter of "turas")

An bealach fada romham = The long road before me
	 romham means "before me" and is a combination of the preposition
	 for "before", and the pronoun for "me". In Gaelic, the prepositions
	 do this a lot, and it is the prepositions which agree with the 
	 subjects, rather than the verbs (as is the case in French and German).
	 This makes learning verbs very easy!. Bealach can also mean a 
	 mountain pass , in the sense of the mouth of the valley. Beal comes
	 into English in the name "Campbell" which comes from "caim+beul" = 
	 crooked mouth.

� l� go l�, mo thuras = From day to day, my journey

na sc�alta na mbeidh a cho�ch = the stories which will be told.

Now that I've translated it, all we have to do is work out what she's
talking about :-)

Craig

             <<< Note 617.5 by SYSTEM::COCKBURN "Craig Cockburn" >>>

>Do you have her other two albums? They are called "Enya" and "Watermark"

No, but if its anything like this one, I will. I do like the song from her last
album, Orinoko Flow.

>The letters you want to merge are A and E. That is the keystroke you use!

Thanks! That was easy.


>Now that I've translated it, all we have to do is work out what she's
>talking about :-)

Something tells me that won't be as easy to do. :^)

Thanks for the translation!

Can you reccomend any books that teach Gaelic? I'd like to learn it.

Scott

>    <<< Note 617.6 by DELNI::FORTEN "Memories: Shadows without substance" >>>

>Can you reccomend any books that teach Gaelic? I'd like to learn it.

I have "Learning Irish" by M�che�l � Siadhail, published by Yale (!) 
University Press. I don't actually use it, except when trying to 
translate Irish, as it's Scottish Gaelic I'm learning. No doubt 
someone better than me can pass comment on this and other books. 
You might also try asking on Gaelic-l - there's details on how to
subscribe to this elsewhere in this conference.

Craig