Transcript

Bhí fear uasal aon am amháin ann agus bhí fear bocht ag obair achan lá aige agus ag goil 'na[1] bhaile san oíche. Agus aon oíche amháin dúirt sé leis an fhear bhocht, mura bhfuasclóchadh sé ceist ar maidin lá harna mhárach dó a bhí sé goil a chur air, nach dtabhairfeadh sé obair níos mó dó. Agus ba í an cheist í freaghar[2] a bheith leis: "Goidé na trí ní ba sine agus ab óige ar an tsaol?"

Fuaigh an fear bocht 'na bhaile, briste brónach agus cha rabh a fhios aige goidé an freaghar a bheirfeadh sé air. Chuir a níon ceist air goidé an brón a bhí air nach rabh sé mar ba ghnách leis ' cuartú a shuipéir. D'ins[3] sé daoithe goidé a dúirt an fear uasal leis agus nach dtiocfadh leis freaghar a thabhairt air, nach rabh a fhios aige údar an cheist a chuir sé air. D'ins sé daoithe ansin goidé an cheist, agus d'iarr sí air suí agna[4] shuipéar, agus nuair a bheadh sé ag imeacht ar maidin go n-inseochadh sise dó an freaghar a bheirfeadh sé ar an fhear uasal.

Nuair a d'éirigh sé ar maidin d'iarr an níon air inse don fhear uasal gurb í an... gurb í an (léann)... gurb í an ghrian, an ghealach agus an fhoghlaim na trí ní ba sine agus ab óige ar an tsaol.

"Cé a d'ins sin duid?" arsa an fear uasal.

"Níon atá sa bhaile agam," arsa an fear bocht.

"Caithfidh tú í a thabhairt domhsa," arsa an fear uasal.

"Le do thoil," arsa an fear bocht, "níl sí fóirsteanach le theacht in do láthair."

"Cuma liom goidé mar atá sí," arsa an fear uasal, "caithfidh sí a theacht in mo láthair."

Chóirigh an fear bocht a níon comh maith agus tháinig leis agus thug roimh an fhear uasal í. Agus dúirt an fear uasal laoithe... léithe go rabh sé ag goil á glacadh ina bean.

"Bhuel," arsa an cailín.

Chuir sé ceist ar an chailín an rabh sí sásta.

"Tá mé sásta," arsa an cailín, "ar acht."

"Goidé an t-acht?" arsa an fear uasal.

"Tá mo thrí ultach den tsaibhreas is fearr atá agad a thabhairt domh an lá a chuirfeas tú ar shiúl mé. Tá a fhios agam nach gcoinneann tú i bhfad mé."

"Gheobh' tú sin," arsa an fear uasal.

Bhí sí ag an fhear uasal go rabh triúr de chlann ann. Agus san am sin tháinig fear uasal eile ar cuairt 'uige ar laetha saoire.

Ó, rinn mé dearmad dó. Rinn mé dearmad dó (...).

Translation

There was once a gentleman and a poor man was working for him every day and going home at night. And one night he told the poor man, that if he didn't answer a question he would ask him the next morning, he would no longer give him work. And the question that needed to be answered was: "What are the three oldest and youngest things in life?"

The poor man went home, sad and crestfallen and he didn't know what answer he would give. His daughter asked him what was troubling him that he wasn't looking for his supper like he normally did. He told her what the gentleman told him and that he couldn't answer him, that he didn't understand why he asked the question at all. He told her then what the question was and she told him to sit down to supper and that when he was leaving in the morning she would tell him the answer he would give the gentleman.

When he got up in the morning the daughter told him to tell the gentleman that learning(?)... that the sun, the moon and learning were the three oldest and youngest things in life.

"Who told you that?" said the gentleman.

"A daughter I have at home," said the poor man.

"You must give her to me," said the gentleman.

"Please," said the poor man, "she isn't suitable to be brought before you."

"I don't care how she is," said the gentleman, "she will have to come to me."

The poor man dressed up his daughter as well as he could and he brought her before the gentleman. And the gentleman said to her that he was going to take her as his wife.

"Well," said the girl.

He asked the girl if she was happy.

"I'm happy," said the girl, "but on one condition."

"What's the condition?" said the gentleman.

"That you give me three armfuls of the best wealth you have the day you send me away. I know you won't keep me long."

"You'll get that," said the gentleman.

She was with the gentleman until they had three children. And at that time another gentleman came to visit him on holidays.

Oh, I forgot it. I forgot it (...).

Footnotes

Commentary

This is an example of international folktale ATU 875 The clever girl. Though there are many different versions of this extremely popular story in Irish folk tradition, a common variant sees a quarrel between a farmer and a nobleman being settled by means of a riddle, to which the farmer's daughter provides the correct answer. See Hans Jorg Uther, The types of international folktales: a classification and bibliography (3 vols, Helsinki, 2004). For a full list of Irish versions of ATU 875 and its subtypes from all over the country, see Seán Ó Súilleabháin and Rieder Th. Christiansen, The types of the Irish folktale (Helsinki, 1968). The current example also contains a number of popular folkloric motifs, the foremost being H561.1.1. Conflict between peasant and nobleman decided so that each must answer riddles: peasant’s daughter solves them. See Stith Thompson, Motif-index of folk literature (rev. and enlarged ed., 6 vols, Bloomington, Ind., 1955-8).

This story is transcribed also in Róise Ní Bhaoill, Ulster Gaelic voices: bailiúchán Doegen 1931 (Belfast, 2010), 170-3.