An Leanbh Aimhréidh
(The Troubled Child)

A lullaby about a baby who crys while his cradle is not rocked by his nurse.

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 transcription in:
The Edward Bunting Collection in Special Collections & Archives, Queen's University Belfast
MS 4/21 Manuscript collection of Irish songs in Gaelic and some English prose translations by Patrick Lynch
4.21 f2v
Not as yet available to view


Patrick Lynch Irish Gaelic fair copy (neatly re-written):
MS 4/10 Manuscript collection of Irish songs in Gaelic by Patrick Lynch
MS 4.10.164, page 164, 1802

Patrick Lynch Irish Gaelic fair copy: An Leanbh Aimhréidh


Chuaidh mé go tigh na banaltra
Le tuitim ceo na h-oídhche,
‘S ní raibh do chaoimhtheach leapa aici
Ach a leanbh bán a' caoineadh.

D’fhiafraigh mé don bhanaltra
Cad a bheir a leanbh síor-ghul;
'Sé dúbhairt sí go ma faisiun do
Bheith a' crónán an sa na-oídhche.

Codladh leis an bogadh dó
Sé ní mo leanbh aimhréidh
Codladh leis an bogadh dó
Sé ní mo leanbh aimhréidh

Ní mar sin dom leanbhsa
Do ré a néall a cholladh sé
Is mur mboga dadi a bhanaltra
Beidh a leanbh aimhréidh

Is maith an fear a mbaile mé
Níl dúil agum a mbíodáin
Is maith an fear a mbaile mé
Níl dúil agug a gcríochain

Nuair a éirighios fir a baile mach
A breathnamh air a n-díobháil
Fillim sa ar a mbhanaltra
Agus bogum dhi a cliabhán


A literal translation
(Verses 4 & 5 may need an alternative translation)

I went to the nurse's house,
With the fall of the mist of the night,
And she did not have a bed companion,
But her darling baby crying

I asked the nurse
What brings her child continually crying
She said it was my fashion (habit, manner)
To be humming in the night.

Sleep with the rocking for him
He's not my troubled baby
Sleep with the rocking for him
He's not my troubled baby

Not so for my baby
For the duration of his nap he slept
If only his nurse was rocking
Her baby will be troubled

I like the man at home
I do not like the gossip (slander, calumny)
I like the man at home
I do not wish to finish

When the men leave their home
To look at him hurt
I return to his nurse
And I rock his cradle

.