Felipa - thanks a million for taking me here and thanks to Brían for the prompt reaction. I never would have found that thread myself. I never would have looked for something like "Bhuar Tha". What's the matter with those search engines? The are so goddamn smart but - I started with searching for "buartha" as given on the CD I am owning. No results. "fadh mo" took me to "bhuartha". Great. With this I found that thread 'Songs in Irish language' where Brían (first?) posted the words but not the translation. I will later try your trick of searching for "fádh mo bhuartha" instead of "fadh mo bhuartha" as I already did. Very smart, you search engine programmers.

Now - in order to contribute a little work myself, and hoping to make it a little easier to be found by search engines - let me try to summarize. The words given here are

'SÉ FÁTH MO BHUARTHA

Sé fáth mo bhuartha nach bhfaighaim cead cuarta
Sa ngleanntán uaigneach ina mbíonn mo ghrá;
Bíonn mil ar luachair ann is im ar uachtar
Is i dtús an fhómhair a bhíonn na crainn faoi bhláth.
Níl gaoith aduaidh ann, níl sneachta buan ann;
Tá caladh is cuan ann ag loing 's ag bád;
Tá tuilleadh bua ann, 's níl tuaras na Cruaiche ann,
An té a dhéanfá suas lena mhuirnín bán.

Agus shíl mé a stóirín, nuair a bhí tú óg deas,
Go ndéanfá foghlaim ar éalú liom;
Is nach bhfuil tráthnóna ná maidin Domhnaigh,
Nach tú an réalt eolais a bhí ag gabháil romham.
Ag siúl na móinte is na coillte clómhar,
Ní bheadh orm brón nó duibheagán croi
Ach mé bheith pósta le mo mhíle stóirín,
Is mo lámh go bródúil ar a brollach mín.

The translation is

IT IS THE CAUSE OF MY SORROW

It is the cause of my sorrow that I can't visit
The lonely glen where my love dwells.
There is butter and honey there
And the flowers bloom at the beginning of autumn.
There is no north wind, no enduring snow.
There is a harbour for ships and boats there.
There are more gifts there, no pilgrimage to Croagh Patrick,
Whoever would win the affections of a fair sweetheart.

I thought, my treasure, because you were fair and young,
I would teach you how to elope with me.
Either evening or Sunday morning,
Aren't you the guiding star that goes before me.
Walking the bogs and the nut filled forests,
I would have no sorrow nor emptiness in my heart.
I will be married to my thousand treasures,
My hand proudly on her fine breast.

Am I understanding this as you meant it? Any corrections before I have learned some nonsense by heart would be very welcome to me. Regarding the translation - I will anyway first have to translate this into German before I can use it. So getting the words as literally as possible is much more important to me than getting them in good English. To me this is an issue of Gaelic and German - English is a technical problem to be solved in between.

The statement "There are more gifts there, no pilgrimage to Croagh Patrick, whoever would win the affections of a fair sweetheart" does not seem very consistent to me - in other words: Huh? Is there any hidden or secret meaning I can't see? And where is "Croagh Patrick" in the Gaelic words?

Thank you all again.

Joerg

Superfluous line breaks deleted. --JoeClone, 21-Apr-03.