Transcript

Bean í seo nár thug cuireadh bídh dho éinne riamh a tháinig ' dtí í. Ach tháinig duine ana-mhuinteartha isteach go dtí í an lá so. Agus ba dheacair léithe gan é a chur féna bhráid i slí éigin. Agus shid é mar a dúirt sí:

"Tair ag ithe
Maran dh'ithis
Ar ndóigh dh'ithis
Mar a dh'ith gach éinne ach sinn-na."

Translation

This was a woman who never extended an invitation to eat to anyone who came to her. But a very polite person came to her this day. And she found it difficult not to offer it to him in some way. And this is what she said:

Come and eat
If you have not eaten
Of course you have eaten
As everyone has eaten but us."

Commentary

The 'cante fable' in folkloristic terms is a narrative that contains alternating prose and verse. A very popular variation of this type of story is known as a stave anecdote, whereby there is a verse at the end of a prose story that sums up or concludes the events, often in a clever way. They are very popular in Gaelic tradition, and usually concern poets or extempore composition of verse. See Donald Haase (ed.), The Greenwood encyclopedia of folktales and fairytales (3 vols, Westport, Ct., 2008), vol. 1, 158.