Transcript

Bhí feirmeoir ann. Bhí sé ag dul go dtí an t-aonach i ndeireadh na hoíche le tarbh, é féin is a bhuachaill. D'éiríodar i ndeireadh na hoíche. Dúirt sé leis an mbuachaill dul amach agus féachaint ar an gcráin féach a' rug[1] sí. Chuaigh an buachaill amach. Nuair a tháinig sé isteach dúirt sé go rug.

"Cá bhfuil na bannaí?" a dúirt an feirmeoir.

"Níl siad ann," arsa eisean. "Do riu-... d'ith na muca eile iad."

"Ní maith é sin," arsa an feirmeoir. "Téir amach arís."

Chuaigh sé amach agus d'fhéach sé timpeall air arís. Agus do tháini' sé isteach. "Do leag an tarbh cruach na tuí," ar seisean.

"Is olc é sin leis," arsa an feirmeoir. "Ach níl leigheas air. Téir amach arís," a dúirt sé, "agus féach cad a chífir. Níl an véarsa críochnaithe agat fós."

Chuaigh an buachaill amach. D'fhéach sé timpeall air. Agus tháini' sé isteach. "Ní fhaca pioc," ar seisean, "ach na réilthíní ar dearglasadh ag cuir sheaca. Ná feiceann tú tóin an chait sa luaith?"

Translation

There was a farmer. He was going to the fair towards the end of the night with a bull, himself and his boy. They got up towards the end of the night. He told the boy to go out and look at the sow to see if she had given birth. The boy went out. When he came in he said she had birthed.

"Where are the piglets?" said the farmer.

"They're not there," he said. "The other pigs ate them."

"That's not good," said the farmer. "Go out again."

He went out and looked around again. And he came in. "The bull knocked over the haystack," he said.

"That's terrible too," said the farmer. "But there's nothing to be done. Go out again," he said, "and see what you see. You haven't finished the verse yet."

The boy went out. He looked around. And he came in. "I didn't see anything," he said, "but the stars shining brightly and making frost. Don't you see the cat's bottom in the ashes?"

Footnotes

Commentary

This story, a fuller version of which appears on a separate track in the Doegen collection, 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.