Transcript

Bha[1] an dís mac ag an duine áirid. Dúirt an duine ab óige acu le a athair, "A athair, A athair. Tabhair, tabhair domh mo chuid. Tá mé ag dul ar shiubhal." Agus roinn seisean eatorr'... a mhaoin eatorr'. Chuaigh sé ar shiubhal. Agus bhí sé cúig bliana déag ar shiubhal nuair a tháinig sé ar ais. Agus char aith-... cha rabh aithne ag a athair air. Dúirt sé le a athair, "Mise do mhac a bhí caillte." Agus nuair a chluin a athair sin chuaigh sé amach agus scairt sé ar a chuid lucht seirbhísigh a theacht isteach. "Seo mo mhac a bhí caillte. Tháinig fo réir. Tabhraibh[2] isteach an lao biata. Marbhaibh é. Ithibh, ólaibh agus bíbh go súgach."

Translation

A certain man had two sons. The youngest one said to his father, "Father! Father! Give me my inheritance. I am leaving." And he divided his wealth between them. [The son] left. And he was gone fifteen years when he returned. And his father did not recognise him. And he said to his father, "I am your son who was lost." And when his father heard that, he went out and called for his servants to come in. "This is my son who was lost. He has returned willingly (?). Bring in the fatted calf. Kill it. Eat, drink and be merry."

Footnotes

Commentary

This telling of the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) is based on a translation supplied to the speaker in advance. Cf. Peadar Ua Laoghaire, Na cheithre Soisgéil as an dTiomna Nua (Dublin, 1915), 191-2. The speaker was encouraged to adapt the text to his own dialect.

This track has also been transcribed and translated in Róise Ní Bhaoill, Ulster Gaelic voices: bailiúchán Doegen 1931 (Belfast, 2010), 290-1. Orthographic and phonetic transcriptions of the track appear in Heinrich Wagner and Colm Ó Baoill, Linguistic atlas and survey of Irish dialects (4 vols, Dublin, 1958-69), vol. 4, 283. Another version of this story by the same speaker was published in An tUltach 11:6 (1934), 1.