Transcript

Bhí seanabhean bhocht go nglaoidís Muireann na nAmhrán uirthi i mBéarra uair 'na cónaí. Agus do bhuail focsaín uimpi lá i mbarra na ceapaí agus dúirt sé léi, "A Mhuirinn, abair véarsa dhom." Do shuigh sí síos ar an móta glas féir do bhí taobh léi agus do thosnaigh sí mar seo:

"Is mithid dhúinn an chonairt seo do dhíbirt uainn
Mar do bhriseadar ár gcuisleanna is ár gcroí ionainn ró-mhór,
(Spid is) nimh orthu do chuirfidh iad go cíocrach uainn
Gan fáil tuilleadh orthu go dtagaidh na (tois thar mín go duaidh)."

Translation

There once was a poor old woman they used to call Mary of the Songs living in Beara. And she met a little fox one day at the top of her plot of land and he said to her, "Mary, recite a verse for me." She sat down on the green mound of grass that was beside her and she started like this:

"It is time we expel this pack of foxes
Because they broke our throbbing hearts too much
(Spite) and venom on them that will send them from us ravenous
Not to be found anymore until the (...) come over land (?) (...)."

Commentary

In this 'stave anecdote', a fox asks a woman for a song, whereupon she utters a curse upon all foxes. The text contains the word focsaín, which is composed of the English word 'fox' and the Irish diminutive suffix -ín. The first line of the verse contains the word conairt, usually translated as 'a pack of hounds' but denoting foxes in this instance. The idea of poets cursing and even banishing pest animals is common in Irish folklore, and was even commented on by English writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. See Dáithí Ó hÓgáin, Myth, legend and romance (New York, 1991), 368.