Ní fiú liom freagra freastail a thabhairt ort,
A shnámhaire galair nach aiteas do labhartha!
Ach ’neosad feasta do mhaithe na cúirte
An nós ’nar cailleadh an ainnir nárbh fhiú thú.
Do bhí sí lag, gan ba gan púntaibh,
Bhí sí i bhfad gan teas gan clúdadh,
Cortha dá saol, ar strae á seoladh
Ó phosta go p’léar gan ghaol gan chóngas,
Gan scíth gan spás de lá ná d’oíche
Ag stríocadh an aráin ó mhná nár chuí léi.
Do gheall an fear so dreas sócúil di,
Gheall an spreas di teas is clúdadh,
Cothrom glan is ba le crú dhi
Is codladh fada ar leabain chlúimh dhi,
Teallaí teo is móin a daoithin,
Ballaí fód gan leoithne gaoithe,
Fothain is díon ón síon ’s ón spéir dhi
Is olann is líon le sníomh chun éadaigh.
Dob fheasach don tsaol ’s don phéist seo láithreach
Nach taitneamh ná téamh ná aonphioc grá dho
Cheangail an péarla maorga mná so
Ach easnamh go léir - ba déirc léi an tsástacht!
Ba dubhach an fuadar suairceas oíche:
Smúid is ualach, duais is líonadh,
Lúithní lua’ is guaillí caola
Is glúine crua chomh fuar le hoighre,
Cosa feoite dóite ón ngríosaigh
Is colainn bhreoite dhreoite chríonna! |
‘I’d honour you much if I gave the lie
To an impudent speech that needs no reply;
’Tis enough if I tell the sort of life
You led your unfortunate, decent wife.
‘This girl was poor, she hadn’t a home,
Or a single thing she could call her own,
Drifting about in the saddest of lives,
Doing odd jobs for other men’s wives,
As if for drudgery created,
Begging a crust from women she hated.
He pretended her troubles were over;
Married to him she’d live in clover;
The cows she milked would be her own,
The feather bed and a decent home,
The stack of turf, the lamp to light,
The good earth wall of a winter’s night,
Flax and wool to weave and wind,
The womanly things for which she pined.
Even his friends could not have said
That his looks were such that she lost her head.
How else would he come by such a wife
But that ease was the alms she asked of life?
What possible use could she have at night
For dourness, dropsy, bother and blight,
A basket of bones with thighs of lead,
Knees absconded from the dead,
Fire-speckled shanks and temples whitening,
Looking like one that was struck by lightning? |
