Transcript

Bhí feirmeoir ann agus bhí sé ag dul go dtí an t-aonach le tarbh. D'éirigh sé féin agus a bhuachaill i ndeireadh na hoíche. Dúirt sé leis an mbuachaill dul amach agus féachaint ar an gcráin mhuice ar eagla go mbeadh sí beirthe. Chuaigh an buachaill amach. Tháini' sé isteach agus dúirt sé go rug[1] an chráin.

"Cá bhfuil na bannaí? (An mó iad) na bannaí?" arsa an feirmeoir.

"D'ith na muca eile iad," ar seisean.

"Is olc é," arsa an feirmeoir, "ach téir amach arís agus féach an bhfeicfeá aon ní eile."

Chuaigh sé amach agus tháini' sé isteach arís. "Do leag an tarbh cruach na tuí," ar seisean.

"Ní maith é sin leis," arsa an feirmeoir. "Ach téir amach arís agus féach timpeall ort. Féach an bhfeicfeá aon ní eile."

"Ní raghad," arsa an buachaill.

"Caithfir dul," arsa an feirmeoir. "Níl an véarsa críochnaithe agat fós."

Chuaigh sé amach an tríú huair. D'fhéach sé timpeall air agus bhuail sé isteach.

"Cad a chonaicís anois?" arsa an feirmeoir.

"Ní fhaca pioc," ar seisean. "Tá na réilthíní ar dearglasadh ag cuir sheaca. Féach tóin an chait sa luaith."

Ansan dúirt an feirmeoir, "Tá an véarsa déanta agat," ar seisean.

"D'ith na tuirc na hairc,
Do leag an damh an tuí,
Na réilthíní ag cuir sheaca,
Tóin an chait sa ghríos."

Translation

There was a farmer and he was going to the fair with a bull. He and his boy woke up at the end of the night. He told the boy to go out and look at the sow in case she had given birth. The boy went out. He came in and said that the sow had given birth.

"Where are the piglets? (...) piglets?" said the farmer.

"The other pigs ate them," said he.

"That's terrible," said the farmer, "but go out again to see if you see anything else."

He went out and he came in again. "The bull knocked down the haystack," he said.

"That's not good either," said the farmer. "But go out again and look around you. See if you see anything else."

"I won't," said the boy.

"You'll have to go," said the farmer. "You haven't finished the verse yet."

He went out a third time. He looked around him and went back in.

"What did you see this time?" said the farmer.

"I didn't see anything," he said. "The stars are shining brightly and making frost. Look at the cat's bottom in the ashes."

Then the farmer said, "You have made the verse," he said.

"The boars ate the piglets,
The ox knocked over the hay,
The stars are making frost,
The cat's bottom is in the hot ashes."

Footnotes

Commentary

This story is one of a number collected and published in an article in Béaloideas 3 (1931) which deals with the extempore composition of poetry. The motif of spontaneous composition is one that dates back to some of the earliest Irish literature, where poets display skill or ability through the impromptu recital of verse. Similar anecdotes survived in oral tradition, and were very popular in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century stories regarding famous poets. See 'Filidheacht a gan fhios' in Gearóid Ó Murchadha, 'Eachtraí, véursaí agus paidreacha ó iarthar Chorcaí', Béaloideas 3 (1931), 212-39: 238. This story also contains elements of weather lore. The poet speaks of a cat with its back or rear facing the fire, which was traditionally seen as an omen of an approaching storm or spell of bad weather. See Micheál Ó Cinnéide, 'Tuartha aimsire i mbéaloideas na hÉireann', Béaloideas 52 (1984), 35-69: 49.