An sean-fhear a raibh an Piliúr aige

Follow the trend of my last two posts, I’m going to present a transcription from Annála Beaga ó Iorrus Aithneach again today. This story, An sean-fhear a raibh an Piliúr aige seems to have been collected from Micheál Mhac Dhonnchada (about whom, see the introduction of the previous post that mentioned him). As with the other few stories, this one was read by Liam Mac Con Iomaire, ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam, who recorded himself reading them in the 1980s for Raidió na Gaeltachta. It  can be found in the recording from Digital Repository of Ireland here, along with several other stories including Ór an tSagart, and An tSeanbhean i mBáile Átha’n Rí. This recording is extremely valuable for the quality of Irish in it, and can be used for authentic, native Irish, with transcription practice via my Vifax Method for training listening. Please enjoy the story and the transcription. Dialectal notes follow.

Fear a bhí ann, fear láidir, neart deis’ aige, airgead is ‘chuile shórt. Dubhairt sé le n-a bhean lá go mbadh cheart di piliúr a dhéanamh dhó le go leagfadh sé faoi n-a cheann é, piliúr deas éadtrom a d’fhéadfadh sé bhreith leis i n-áit ar bith a mbeadh sé ag leigean a sgíthe. Rinne sí an piliúr ar an gcaoi ar dhubhairt sé léithe é. Nuair a bhí an bás ag doirdim leis agus nuair a tháinig an sagart chuige agus bhí sé leagtha amach a ghul chómh fada le Dia dubhart sé le n-a bhean, nuair a caillfidhe é, an piliúr a chur faoi n-a chloigeann sa gcónra. Dubhairt an bhean go gcuirfead.

Nuair a cailleadh é agus nuair a cuiread i gcónra é leagad an piliúr faoi n-a chloigeann.

Shíl an chlann go raibh an t-airgead ag an máthair agus ní raibh an mháthair ag cur suim ar bith ann. D’fhafruigh an chlann de’n mháthair cé raibh an t-airgead. Dubhairt an mháthair nach raibh fhios aice tada faoi, “ach dubhairt sé liom-sa,” adeir sí, “piliúr a dhéanamh dhó agus nuair a bhí sé caillte é a chur faoi n-a cheann, agus b’fhéidir gur annsin atá an t-airgead aige. Tá mé ag ceapadh gur ann atá an t-airgead,” adeir sí, “agus an méid aireachais a bhí aige air.”

“Má cheapann tú gur ann atá an t-airgead,” adeir an chlann, “nár cheart dúinn labhairt leis an sagart faoi?”

Chuaidh siad chuig an sagart agus dubhairt siad leis go raibh aimhreas acab gur sa bpiliúr a bhí an t-airgead. Dubhart an sagart go raibh sé éasgaidh a thabhairt as, má bhí, gur mó an peacadh a fhágáil ann ná a thabhairt as. Ghabh an sagart i n-éinfheacht leob annsin agus bhaineadar an clár de’n chónra. Nuair a bhreathnuigh an sagart síos bhí an corp ionntuighthe sa gcónra béal faoi, agus an piliúr ina bhéal.

“Diabhal atá ann,” adeir an sagart, “dúnaidh air ais. Fágaidh aige é.”

D’fhág.

Like most the other stories from this collection, there aren’t a whole lot of dialectal features to be seen in the writing, in contrast to what we get from the stories from Éamonn a’ Búrc. However, a few things that are worth mentioning.

First, it’s important to notice that clann here is used solely to refer to the offspring of the man. This is the traditional Irish use of the world, clann in Irish is not the same as English ‘family’ (which doesn’t really have a one-to-one translation into Irish), and it shouldn’t be translated that way. This despite many teachers doing it; it’s really just Béarlachas and bad Irish.

Second, notice that sa eclipses the following noun. This is common in Connemara. Also note the variant dialectal prepositional forms, which can be seen from two posts on this blog (Prepositions in Connemara Irish 1 and Prepositions in Connemara Irish 2)

Notice also the variant verb form ar dhubhairt, which would be written modernly as ar úirt/dhúirt. This is a regularizing of this verb in Connemara, where the starting /d/ has been analyzed as the remnants of the former particle do (still present in Munster dialects) that is to be seen in some tenses/moods before vowels (it used to be present in all verbs in those moods/tenses, and cause lenition). Thus we have d’úirt, ar úirt, níor úirt in Connemara.

Finally, the imperative forms at the end: dúnaidh and fágaidh. These are the general second-person plural imperatives in Connemara, instead of the standard dúnaigí and fágaigí. These extend to all verbs.