The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #14957   Message #582508
Posted By: GUEST,Philippa
30-Oct-01 - 07:12 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Donal Og (Young Donald)
Subject: Lyr Add: DÓNAL ÓG / YOUNG DONALD
I found more verses of the O'Connor translation in Patrica Craig, ed.: "The Oxford Book of Ireland"

DÓNAL ÓG
(18th century Irish) Translation by Frank O'Connor

Donal Ogue, when you cross the water,
Take me with you to be your partner
And at fair and market you'll be well looked after,
And you can sleep with the Greek king's daughter.

You said you would meet me, but you were lying,
Beside the sheepfold when the day was dying,
I whistled first, then I started hailing,
But all I heard was the +young lambs' wailing.

You said you'd give me – an airy giver! -
A golden ship with masts of silver,
Twelve market towns to be my fortune
And a fine white mansion beside the ocean.

You said you'd give me – 'tis you talk lightly!-
Fish-skin gloves that would fit me tightly,
Bird-skin shoes when I went out walking,
And a silken dress would set Ireland talking.

Ah, Donal Ogue, you'd not find me lazy,
Like many a high-born expensive lady;
I'd do your milking and I'd nurse your baby,
And if you were set on I'd back you bravely.

To Lonely Well I wander sighing,
'Tis there i do my fill of crying,
When I see the world but not my charmer,
And all his locks the shade of amber.

I saw you first on a Sunday evening
Before the Easter and I was kneeling,
'Twas about Christ's passion that I was reading,
But my eyes were on you and my own heart bleeding.

My mother said we should not be meeting,
That I should pass and not give you greeting;
'Twas a good time surely she chose for cheating
With the stable bare and the horse retreating.

You might as well let him have me, mother,
And every penny you have moreover;
Go beg your bread like any other
But him and me don't seek to bother.

Black as the sloe is the heart inside me,
Black as the coal with the griefs that drive me,
Black as the boot print on shining hallways
And 'twas you that blackened it ever and always.

For you took what's before me and what's behind me,
You took east and west when you wouldn't mind me,
Sun and moon from my sky you have taken,
And God as well, or I'm much mistaken.

line breaks fixed by mudelf