Anois ó táim-se i m’ ċaḋan ḃoċt ḋealḃ
I measg na n-dúṫaiġe fiaḋán seo,
Is é mo ċuṁa ċroiḋe mar fuair me an
ġairm
Ḃeiṫ riaṁ im’ spailpín fánaċ.
V.
I g-Ciarraiġe an ġrinn do ġéaḃṫaoi an
aindear
Go m’ḟonn le fear suiḋe láiṁ léi,
’Na mbéiḋ lasaḋ trí lítis ’na gnaoi mar
eala,
’Sa cúl fionn fada fáinneaċ.
A cruinn[e] ċíoċa, riaṁ nár sgaipeaḋ
Sa mala ċaol mar ṡnáiṫid;
Is mór go mb’ ḟearr í ná sraoil ó Ċallainn
’Na m-beiḋ na ceudta púnt le faġḃáil
léi.
VI.
Is ró-ḃreaġ is cuiṁin liom mo ḋaoine ḃeiṫ
sealad
Ṡiar ag[e] Droiċead ġáile,
Fá ḃuaiḃ, fá ċaoiriḃ, fá laoġaiḃ beag
geala
Agus capaill ann le h-áireaṁ.
B’é toil Ċríost gur cuireaḋ sinn asta,
Aṡ go ndeaċamar i leaṫ’ ár sláinte;
’S gur ḃ’é ḃris mo ċroiḋe in gaċ tír dá
raċaim
“Call here you spailpín fánaċ.”
VII.
Dá d-tigeaḋ an Frannaċ a nall tar calaḋ
’S a ċampa daingean láidir,
Agus Bóic O’Gráda ċuġainn a ḃaile,
’S Taḋg boċt fial o’Dálaiġ,
Do ḃeiḋ barracks an riġ go léir dá leagaḋ,
Agus yeomen aguinn dá g-cárnaḋ.
Clanna Gaeḋil gaċ am dá d-treasgairt
Sin caḃair ag an spailpín fánaċ.
TRANSLATION.
I. I shall never, never again go to Cashel to sell or barter my health, nor sit by the wall at holiday hiring, a lorn creature on the street side. The farmers from the whole country coming on their horses asking if I were hired. Let us up and go, the course is long; here's off with the Spailpín Fánach.
II. I was left a wandering slave, dependent on my health—walking the dew at early morn collecting a quarter’s sickness—a hook shall not be seen in my hand for reaping, a flail or a little bit of a spade, hut I shall have the colours of the French above my bed and a pike for sticking——
III. When I go to Callan with hook in fist (being there at the beginning of reaping time), or when I go to Dublin, their cry is always “there's the S. F. for ye.” I shall collect sense and travel home and assist my poor mother for a time, but never again shall my name be called the S. F. in this country——
IV. My five hundred good wishes to the home of my father, and to kindly Castle Island, and to the boys of Cool; they used not to be slack at the time for turning up the gardens—But now as I am a poor stricken outcast in these strange lands, ’twas a sorry day I ever got the title of a S. F.
V. A girl would be found in jolly Kerry beside whom a man would wish to sit. On whose face red would be mixed with the lily-white of a swan, and her poll of hair so fair, long and ringletted. Her shapely breasts were never defiled; her eyebrows were slender as a needle. Far better she than a drab from Callan, with hundreds of pounds of a fortune——
VI. ’Tis well I remember my people were once, over to the west there at Gale Bridge, full of cattle, sheep, and little white calves, and horses to be counted. ’Twas Christ’s will that we lost them as well as that our health declined—But what broke my heart wherever I went was that “call here you S. F.”
VII. If the Frenchman only came over the sea with his camp so brave and strong, and if dashing O’Grady came home to us, and poor generous Theig O’Daly, the king’s barracks would be all a tumbling, and we should have the yeomen to slaughter—the Irish destroying them every day—There’s help for the Spailpín Fánach.
NOTES.
As we learn language by phrases and not by words, and as words vary so much in meaning according to their setting in context, it was judged better to render this song as the author himself would have done it, had he been able, by giving a fairly good equivalent for every clause, avoiding purposely the conventional crudities of the nursery-English style of translation. That system pins every Irish word rigidly to a certain English word, and writes in the Irish order of context.
Verse i., 2, reic = selling, bartering. Line 3, On Sunday afternoon, at potatoe-digging time, the men lined the streets, leaning on their spades, awaiting an employer. The custom still holds in Carrick. Im’ sgaoinse is an appellative fem. in Waterford, where it would be translated “a slip of a gerril.” As regards this and all other difficulties in this song we ask the annotations of some friend in Ciarraiġe Luaċra. Im ṡuiḋe = in my sitting state. Also = arisen from bed. leaṫ taoiḃ, one side. Familiar twin articles were regarded as forming a unity, hence one of the two was called a half. leaṫ-láṁ=one hand, dí láim, hands, cf. Taḋg Gaoḋlaċ:
Is leat-sa atáid ag tnúṫ
M’anam, mo ċroiḋe, a’s mo ḋá ṡúil = my eyes.
Applied use: leaṫ ċeann = with crooked top. Said of hay-ricks, &c. Line 5, bodairiḋe, a contemptuous term for well-fed farmers, vid. O’Daly’s note, Munster Poets, 2nd series, p. 77, n. 2. Teannam, 1st per. plu. imperat.=let us press on. Spailpín, a strange labourer at harvest or potatoe-digging. From spalpaim, I obtrude (?), cf. O’Daly, ibid.
