| An Loingeas | The Ship Sailing |
 |
|
| An Loingeas (sliocht) | The Ship Sailing (excerpt) |
| Maidir lem iomthúsa idir Éirinn agus Albainn ní fiú mórán a aithris. Lí na farraige go láidir fúinn, gile mara faoinár rámha. Shín uainn glas is buí. Tonntracha ag síorshnoí an talaimh i bhfad i gcéin. Inis i gcónai ar íor ár súile agus rith fionn lena taobh gheal. Ghairm an fharraige síthshámh linn fan an bhealaigh. Lúcháir radhairc dúinn na bradáin bhreaca ag léim as broinn faoinár siúl ar an mhuir fhionn. Luigh na gaotha síos is d’fhan go socair uainn in ionaid uachtracha an aeir, is shocraigh an mhuir ina clár réidh míngheal gan ghlam, gan tafann. Daoine eile a ghabh an ród seo romham á n-iompar agam ar mo dhroim. Mic Uisleann nach raibh in Éirinn rí nach gcuirfeadh fáilte rompu. Colm Cille a raibh cumha ar éanacha agus ar ainmhithe éigiallda ina dhiaidh. Bhí sé i ndán dó siúd go síolfadh sé creideamh agus cráifeacht. Bhí mo chuidse cinniúna romham amach chomh dall leis an ghealach. |
About my goings from Ireland to Scotland there is not much to relate. The slap of the sea strongly beneath us, the bright brine urged by our oars. Always an isle on our eyes’ edge, brushed with white billows. The saltsud sea beckoned us onwards. Joyjumps to our sight were the spotted salmon leaping from the waves on our white way. The winds lay down and hid sweetly in the upper nooks of the air, and the sea settled to a quiet quilt without growl or glower. Others before me who had passed this way I carried on my back. The sons of Uisneach whom no king in Ireland would not have given welcome. Colm Cille for whom the birds and the wild beasts pined. It was his fate to seed faith and fealty. My fate before me as blind as the moon. |
| This is an excerpt from the novel An Fear Dána, which is an imaginative reconstruction of the life and times of the Irish-Scottish poet Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dalaigh (c.1180-1230). He had to flee Ireland after he murdered a steward of Domhnall Mór Ó Domhnaill who had insulted him, and spent several years as professional bard to the Earls of Lennox. He later went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, possibly on the coat-tails of the Crusades, and returned to Ireland to try to regain a poetic position and to make peace with his accusers. It is likely that this was unsuccessful and that he returned to Scotland, where he died. This piece describes his sea-journey from Ireland to Scotland while he was going into exile. (Alan Titley) | |
|
|
||
Alan Titley |
||
| Ealaíontóir/Artist: Peannaire/Calligrapher: Aistritheoir/Translator: Ainmníodh ag/Nominator: |
John Bellany Donald Addison The Author Michael Davitt |
|