Transcript

Do bhí fear fadó ann agus bhí sé bocht. Agus bhí go leor muintearais aige. Ach ní raibh aon mhéin acu (a dhéanamh) aon mhaitheasa dhó. Agus do shuigh sé síos lá dhá laethanta. "Muise," a dúirt sé,

"Tréigeann an fhéile agus fuaraíonn an grá,
Ní héifeacht éinne gan gustal 'na láimh,
Agus níl gaol ag éinne le duine gan aird."

Translation

There was a man long ago and he was poor. And he had many relations. But none of them had any mind to do any good for him. And he sat down one of the days. "Well," he said,

"Hospitality is forsaken and love cools,
Someone without wealth in his hand is no good,
And no-one is related to an unheeded person."

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 narrative 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. They appear to be particularly popular amongst the Munster informants in the Doegen collection. A version of this story, entitled 'Fear a bhí ruite bocht', is recorded in Séamus Ó Duilearga, Leabhar Stiofáin Uí Ealaoire (Dublin, 1981), 294.