Transcript

"Tá an véarsa déanta agat anois," arsa an feirmeoir.

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

Translation

"You have made the verse now," said the farmer.

"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."

Commentary

The story that precedes this verse appears on a separate track in the Doegen collection. It 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.