Hi all,

A friend has asked me to translate this, which came from a book written by someone who is not herself an Irish speaker, so I'm not if the difficulty I'm having comes from unfamiliar idioms (entirely possible) or from problems with the Irish. I do know that the original came to me with a lot of misplaced fadas.

Anyway, here's what I have, and what I've made of it. It's labeled "untitled," so I'm assuming it's supposed to be a poem or a song. I'd greatly appreciate any insight you can shed!

Ní fhaca, ar chor ar bith,
Is scrios mór í---scrios agus míchlú
Is é an grá a chaithfidh sí a fháil tar éis an rud go léir.
Caithfimid go léir an grá a fháil ach ní tagaimid tríd an gáitéar ag lorg é?
Tá Bella ag pleidhcíocht linn.
Tá Bella ag iarraidh muid a bhriseadh.
Níl…ansin ní bheidh éinne aicí chun tacaíocht a thabhairt di.

Not seen/I didn't see, at all,
It/she is great havoc/destruction -- destruction and disrepute.
It was love that she needed to have, after the whole thing.
We all need love but [will not come through the gutter] in search of it?
Bella is fooling with us.
Bella wants to break us.
No...then there won't be anyone to support her.

Thanks!

Redwolf

If that's poetry I'm Shakespeare.


The rest seems ok except for these two lines -



To say this-

I'd probably say something like -
Teastóidh uatha (sp?) grá a fháil ina dhiaidh sin,
Teastaíonn grá uainn uilig, ach ní ghabhaidh (sp?) muid trí an ngáitéar á lorg.

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It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
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LOL! I thought the same. I'm just guessing that it was meant to be a poem, as it had a title (even though the title was "untitled").

Do you think I'm more or less on track with what those two lines were meant to say?

The person who sent me this encountered it in a novel that is set in Ireland, but written by an American author ("In the Company of Others" by Jan Karon...one of the "Fr. Tim" books, if anyone's curious). I haven't read the book, so I'm not sure of the context in which these lines were found.

The person also asked about some other words, some of which I'm assuming are Anglicized versions of place names:

Cluainaigh: I'm thinking that this is either supposed to be a name ("Ó Cluainaigh" maybe?), or a place name.

Tullagh Mór: A place name, maybe? I can't find "Tullagh" in any of my dictionaries.

Speabhraidi: I have a strong feeling this one is misspelled. I did try looking it up in FGB under both this spelling and a couple of other likely spellings, but I'm not having any luck.

Aughanagh Parish: "Parish" is English, of course, and "Aughanagh" is clearly Anglicized, but I'm curious as to what it might have been Anglicized from.

Many thanks for whatever input you can provide!

Redwolf

If you ignore the "untitled" bit, and take each line as a different speaker, it makes a rough kind of sense as a conversation between two people.

Taigaimid is just the present, not the future, so "we don't come through the gutter looking for it" rather than "won't".

Now think backwards and change the e of "come" to a b, "we don't comb through the gutter ... " Looks like a google mistake.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

That's the sense I had as well. I even mentioned to her that "Ní fhaca" standing by itself seemed odd...that I'd normally expect to see it as a reply to "an bhfaca tú/sibh" (in which case I'd just translate it as "no").

Redwolf

Didn't see this bit earlier.

"Cluainaigh" would need to be either Cluanaigh or Cluainigh to satisfy Irish spelling, as you know. There are many similar, but no identical, place names in logainm.

"Tullagh" is most likely tulach low hill, hillock, mound. Could be Tulach Mhór (Tullamore), Uíbh Fhailí or An Tulach Mhór (​Tullaghmore), Gaillimh, or An Tulach Mhór (​Tullamore), Tiobraid Árann.

"Speabhraidi" is perhaps meant to be speabhraídí illusions, fantasies, ravings (FGB). Also indicated by this entry from Dinneen:


"Aughanagh" could be Eachanach in Sligo, usually anglicized as "Aghanagh", but again there are many similar, but no identical, place names in logainm.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Cluainaigh is a place name I believe as Cluain is a meadow, the closest I could find was Cloonagh, the meadow of horses but that's a guess. Tulla Mór is a place name as well, Tullamore - great hill. Years ago there was a famous ceili band , Th Tullamore Ceili Band