Good girl Philippa.

You've picked up most of the errors in the original site referred to, but here are a few more tweaks (in spite of the Irish nickname, my own Irish is a bit rusty, so I can't guarantee that I'm 100% right either). I've added in some punctuation to make the phrasing more obvious:

AG CRÍOST AN SÍOL

Ag Críost an síol,
Ag Críost an fómhar:
In iothlann Dé
Go dtugtar sinn.
Ag Críost an mhuir,
Ag Críost an t-iasc:
I líontaibh Dé
Go gcastar sinn.

Ó fhás go haois
Is ó aois go bás,
Do dhá lámh', a Chríost,
Anall tharainn.
Ó fhás go críoch
Ní críoch ach ath-fhás.
I bParrthas na nGrást
Go rabhaimís.


Translation

The seed is Christ's,
Ihe harvest is Christ's:
Into God's barn
May we be gathered.
The sea is Christ's,
The fish is Christ's:
In God's nets
May we be caught.

From birth to adulthood
And from adulthood to death,
May your two hands, O Christ,
Be drawn over us.
From birth to the end
Not an end but rebirth.
In the paradise of grace
may we be.


We sing it every year at a St Patrick's day Mass which is sung in Irish for the Irish community of Belgium in the chapel of the historic Irish Franciscan college in Louvain. I've done a whistle solo on it as well, and believe me, in the magnificent acoustics of that chapel I move even myself to the odd tear in the eye.

It blows me away every time, it's a beautiful melody and a beautiful hymn which must touch anyone who has even a small vestige of religious sensitivity left in them. It's apt for any circumstances, be it christenings or weddings, and I hope there'll be somebody around to do it for my funeral (oops! gloomy Celt!). Its simplicity and lyrical quality may be what prompted the belief thet Pearse wrote it, but I've never seen it attributed to him before.

I've made the translation parallel the original Irish as closely as possible so that anyone with half a notion of Irish can follow it. It's such a wonderful prayer that it deserves to be better known, so why doesn't someone adapt the English words to fit the tune? I'm sure some Catter could do it in five minutes flat. In fact I could probably have a stab at it myself if I spent less time following irritating trolls.

So let's have the official Mudcat translation produced as a collaborative effort by next Monday. That way James will have lots of time to rehearse it. It's quite short, James, so you could do it in Irish, followed by the whisle solo, followed by the English translation.

line breaks added by mudelf ;-)