Gliondar Ar Mo Draoi

i got super tired of being bombarded with ads here on tumblr, and if neocities starts using ads, i'll move to somewhere else again. life's too short to spend it being advertised at, while trying to participate in your hobbies!

the link's here, and i'll leave this tumblr up for a while, but anything new will be added to neocities instead.

the new version is also fully in irish, since the main reason i began the translation was to help improve my irish.

[ Sin é an original in Gáidhlig ⁊ Carmichael's translation to English ]

Brón orm, executive dysfunction meant I disappeared by mistake for a while, but now we're back to my unregularly unscheduled updates!

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A Ṡeamair Óg na bua, Ag fás faoi ḃruaiġ, Ar an ṡeas Bríde ṡuairce,     Dé suáilceaċ.

Tá na seaċt sonais, Gan scáṫ donais Ort, a ḋuine-ġeal Na gaṫanna solais--

    Sonas sláinte,     Sonas ċáirde,     Sonas tána,     Sonas tréada,     Sonas páistí, 'gus     Ṁuirníní ṁín-ġeal,     Sonas síoċána,     Sonas Déiṫe!

Ceaṫair ḋuilleoga na lorga díreaċ, Cúig na lorga díreaċ as fréaṁ na meanglán céad, A ṡeamair óg ġeallaḋ ar Lá Ḟéile Bríde, Bua 'gus beannaċt ṫú gaċ ré.

See the original Gàidhlig and English text here! This entry from volume 2 of the Carmina Gadelica is a cool charm petitioning Bríde to keep animals safe. With lambing season upon us already, this seems like the best time for translating this. :)

Charms like this tended to be rooted in the local landscape, referring to plants and animals that were found locally, even when they're not naming specific areas or geographical features, like this one does. If you want to make use of a charm like this, I'd suggest substituting in the flora, fauna, and places around you.

Also, RIP to the toġán / fumart / Scottish polecat mentioned here, which is now extinct. The name fumart / foumart comes from "foul marten". Justice for the allegedly somewhat stinky Scottish polecat. </3

Brioċt Ḃríde

Brioċt a ċuir Bríde na bua, Ar a minsí, ar a caoiriġ, ar a buair, Ar a capaill, ar a capaill cogaiḋ, ar a buaile, Moċ 'us amaċ dul aḃaile 'us ó ḃaile. Gan cuimilt ó ċreagán, ó ċleiteán, Ó laḋaraċa 'gus ó aḋarca a ċéile, Ó éin na Creige Ruaidh, 'Us ó Luath na Fèinne. Ó lannaire liaṫ Creag Duilionn, Ó eolair riaḃaċ Beinn-Àrd, Ó ṡeaḃac luaṫ Torr-an-Duin, Agus fiaċ dúr Creag-a-Bhàird. Ó ṁadra rua an ċorrġlic, Ó ṁadra alla a' Mhaim, Ó ṫoġán tórmaċ, 'Us ó ṁaṫúin udṁall an ṁáis. Ó gaċ ceaṫairċosaċ sporaḋ, Agus goraḋ ḋá sciaṫ.

The main Gàidhlig resources I use for translation are:

Kevin Scannell's 2016 Foclóir Gàidhlig-Gaeilge, and

LearnGaelic.Scot's Dictionary and Am Faclair Beag. They can do accent-insensitive searches, which is super useful due to Carmichael removing all fadas.

Agus ar an taoḃ Gaeilge:

Focloir.ie and Teanglann.ie are great for looking things up on the Irish side of things & making sure the meaning's still the same, or looking for a synonym that preserves a rhyme, etc.

It's Oíċe Ḟéile Bríde anoċt, so ná déanaigí dearmad to leave a brat Ḃríde out on your windowsill tonight, and hang up a criosóg Bríde over your doors!

For my fun Oíċe/Lá Ḟéile Bríde activities, I'll be translating a couple of sayings, verses, etc from the "Genealogy of Bríde" notes page. Many of these had multiple versions; I just picked one from each theme/type.

Féile na Ḃríde, feis na finne. ☾

Bríde binn na boise báin. ☆

Original from the Carmina Gadelica in Scots Gaelic and English here!

Aistriúchán Ghaeilge:

An t-ainm Áine an ghrás', An t-ainm Lugh Samhaildánach, An t-ainm Manannán Mac Lir agus a' ghealach ag fás, O! an t-ainm na trí atá d’ ár díon 's gach cás, Má's maith a fuair sibh sinn anocht, Seacht fearr go bhfága sibh sinn gan locht, A Ghealach gheal an tráth, A Ghealach gheal an tráth.

A hopefully handy index of everything already translated from the Carmina Gadelica into Irish, as I work my way through these!

PSA: I barely have intermediate Gaeilge, and no Gàidhlig, so if any fluent speakers of either have more fitting suggestions for translations, I'm happy to edit any posts/make any corrections! Each post has a hyperlink to the relevant original in the Carmina Gadelica for easy reference :)

[ Thoughts about translation ]

[ Acmhainne/Resources Gàidhlig-Gaeilge ]

Aistriúċáin Gaeilge

54: An Ġealaċ Úr - The New Moon

67: Beannú Bliain Úr - Blessing Of The New Year

70: Sloinnteoireaċt Ḃríde - Genealogy of Bríde

136: Brioċt Ḃríde - St Bride's Charm

I've never translated stuff into Irish from Scots Gaelic before, and because the languages are closely related, I'm running into issues like choosing between a more direct literal translation, or something that's perhaps less faithful but keeps the general meaning while still rhyming and/or using more common/modern Irish.

I'm probably going to skip around the carmina's entries & translate anything related to seasonal changes/festivals/etc first, and tbh I'm a bit at a loss as to how to approach the more overtly christian prayers/invocations to suit gaelpol purposes. I suppose people can swap out specific names and traits to suit their individual needs..?

I don't necessarily believe that these are perfectly preserved ancient prayers where only the names got substituted/christianised. If christianisation just spread a thin layer of christianity over local paganism, then I'm essentially doing the same thing by spreading a thin layer of paganism over some ~125-year-old Scottish christian prayers, rather than undoing the christianisation as such.

67. Beannú Bliain Úr - Aistriúchán Gàidhlig-Gaeilge

Déithe, beannaígí dom an lá úr, Nach bhur dturaidh dom roimh ré; Is ann go mbeannaíod bhur ghnúiseanna, Thug sibh an uain seo dom, a Dhéithe.

Beannaígí sibhse dom mo shúile, Go mbeannaí mo shúile mo lé; Beannóidh mise mo comharsa, Go mbeannaí mo comharsa mé.

Déithe, tugaigí domsa croí glan, Ná ligigí as amharc bhur súile mé; *Beannaígí dom mo ghin 's mo bhean, 'S beannaígí dom mo mhaoin 's mo ní.

*I personally don't have a wife or kids, and this translation doesn't rhyme well (mé with ní), so I made an alternative last two lines, feel free to ignore me taking (more) liberties:

Beannaígí dom mo mhuintir 's mo phobal, 'S beannaígí duinn sláinte 's saoil réidhe.

(Bless to me my people and my community, And bless to us health and carefree lives.)

I'm going to merge a load of my interests and translate stuff from the Carmina Gadelica (volume 1 and volume 2) as best I can into Irish, with attempts to reconstruct what prayers/charms/invocations/etc might have been like in pre-Christian Ireland.

I'll post them here as I'm doing so, BUT níl mé líofa ar ċor ar biṫ, táim fós ag foġlaim, so if folks have any suggestions for closer translations, etc., feel free to chime in!