The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #32097 Message #4133564
Posted By: GUEST,Rory
24-Jan-22 - 05:30 AM
Thread Name: Lyr ADD: Beside the White Rocks
Subject: RE: Origin: Bruach Na Carraige Baine/Edge of the..
A version of the song collected from oral tradition by Irish scholar Patrick Lynch in Mayo in June 1802, for Edward Bunting's Collection, in which none of Lynch's two hundred collected and translated songs were ever published by Bunting.
Patrick Lynch Irish Gaelic fair copy (neatly re-written) in: The Edward Bunting Collection in Special Collections & Archives, Queen's University Belfast MS 4/10 Manuscript collection of Irish songs in Gaelic by Patrick Lynch MS 4.10.101, page 101, 1802
B'fearr liom no Éire mhór No saibhrios Rígh na Spáine No a bh'feice de or bhuidh le mo ló Go mbéinnse ag ól do sláinte
Tusa agus mise bheith pósta Le lán toil hathara is máthara A mhaighdion óg is mílse póg Ale taobh na Carraice Báine
A chiúin bhean óg na ngruaidh mar rós Is truagh gan mise leat pósta Gan gruaim gan bhrón an nidh ar a domhan Ach siubhul go suigheamhúil ag cóiste
Rún gach duine si an stáid bhean A cúl trom dualach fáineach An rioghuin óg is milse póg Le taobh na Carraice Báine
(verse 3 line 4) suigheamhúil = cuideachtúil = Companionable, sociable.
A translation by Patrick Lynch is probable in one of his manuscripts that are not as yet available to view at Queen’s University Belfast Digital Collections
Late in his life, the blind harper Arthur O’Neill (1737-1816) dictated his memoirs to Thomas Hughes, a clerk employed by Edward Bunting as secretary, who wrote down O’Neill’s words as he spoke them, between 1808 and 1813. The resulting manuscripts survived amongst the personal papers of Edward Bunting, and these are now preserved in the Library of Queen’s University Belfast. The manuscript contains copies of Lynch's song English translations written by Thomas Hughes.
Thomas Hughes written copy of translation in: MS 4/14/1 Memoirs of Arthur O'Neill (1737-1816), and words of songs MS4.14.1 117, 118, page 59
I would rather, than all of Ireland And the riches of the king of Spain Or all the yellow gold that I shall see in my days That I were drinking your health
That you and I were married With full consent of father and mother My young virgin of the sweetest kiss At the side of the White Rock
My gentle young maid whose cheeks are like the rose It is a pity I am not married to you Without sorrow or grief or any trouble on earth But going sociably in a coach
My stately gain is the delight of all men Her heavy tresses down her back in ringlets This is the young lady of the sweetest kiss At the side of the White Rock
(verse 4 line 1 literal translation) Every man's love is a stately woman