Lyr Add: Donal Og - various translations

Subject: Lyr Add: DONAL ÓG^^
From: Wolfgang Hell
Date: 05 Mar 98 - 10:05 AM

One of my favourite love songs you'll find below. That I do not understand all of the story perhaps even adds to my liking of this song (but don't hesitate to fill in information if you have).
All I know about it is that Seamus Ennis has translated this song from the Gaelic, that Donal Óg means Young Donald, and that at least Al O'Donnell, Archie Fisher, The Furey's, The Sands Family and The McKenna Brothers have recorded it.
The version posted below combines the finest verses from two sources.
Wolfgang

DONAL ÓG

If you should go far across the water,
Oh, take me with you to be your partner.
In that fair and nice land, you'll be well looked after,
And you shall sleep with the Greek king's daughter.

The first time I saw you on that Sunday evening,
Beside the altar where I was kneeling,
It was of Christ's passion that I was reading,
But my mind was on you and my heart was bleeding.

Oh, Donal Óg, you'll not find me lazy,
Not like so many of the high-born and rich young ladies.
I'll do your milking and I'll nurse your baby,
And if you were set on, I would back you bravely.

For you said you would meet me, but you were lying
Beside the sheepshed as the day it was dying.
I whistled first, then I started ailing,
But all that I heard was the young lambs wailing.

Oh, and come if you will, come when stars are peeping.
Rap at the door that makes no squeaking.
My mother will ask you to name your people.
I'll tell her you're a sire of the night winds weeping.

I got the first kiss and from no craven.
I got the second atop the stairway.
The third kiss came as down you laid me,
But for that one night I'd be a maiden.

Oh, as black as the sloe is the heart inside me.
Oh, as black as the coal is the grief that strides me,
As black as that boot print on my shining hallway,
Ah, it is you who blackened it now, forever 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, moon and stars from my sky you have taken,
And God himself - or I'm much mistaken.
^^

Subject: RE: ADD: Donal Óg
From: Wolfgang
Date: 05 Mar 98 - 10:09 AM

...a very tiny bit of the tune can be found here

Subject: RE: ADD: Donal Og
From:
Date: 29 Jan 04 - 12:31 PM

Hi there,
I was looking for the lyrics for Donal Og & was thankful that you had them displayed on your site. I have also found the following information which I thought you might be interested in.
Kind Regards
Maryann Furey

Title :        Donal Og        
Poet :        Anonymous        
Date :        30 Dec 2001        
1stLine:        It is late last nigh...        
Length :        36        Text-only version
Prev        Index        Random         Next
Your comments on this poem to attach to the end [microfaq]                

Guest poem send in by David

Donal Og
It is late last night the dog was speaking of you;
the snipe was speaking of you in her deep marsh.
It is you are the lonely bird through the woods;
and that you may be without a mate until you find me.

You promised me, and you said a lie to me,
that you would be before me where the sheep are flocked;
I gave a whistle and three hundred cries to you,
and I found nothing there but a bleating lamb.

You promised me a thing that was hard for you,
a ship of gold under a silver mast;
twelve towns with a market in all of them,
and a fine white court by the side of the sea.

You promised me a thing that is not possible,
that you would give me gloves of the skin of a fish;
that you would give me shoes of the skin of a bird;
and a suit of the dearest silk in Ireland.

When I go by myself to the Well of Loneliness,
I sit down and I go through my trouble;
when I see the world and do not see my boy,
he that has an amber shade in his hair.

It was on that Sunday I gave my love to you;
the Sunday that is last before Easter Sunday.
And myself on my knees reading the Passion;
and my two eyes giving love to you for ever.

My mother said to me not to be talking with you today,
or tomorrow, or on the Sunday;
it was a bad time she took for telling me that;
it was shutting the door after the house was robbed.

My heart is as black as the blackness of the sloe,
or as the black coal that is on the smith's forge;
or as the sole of a shoe left in white halls;
it was you that put that darkness over my life.

You have taken the east from me; you have taken the west from me;
you have taken what is before me and what is behind me;
you have taken the moon, you have taken the sun from me;
and my fear is great that you have taken God from me!

    -- Anonymous

Anonymous; 8th Century Irish ballad; translated by Lady Augusta Gregory; published in The School Bag, edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes, 1997.

Donal Og: 'Young Daniel'

This poem combines a keening tone with some wonderful images and the result builds in anxiety, moving from the physical to the metaphysical.
The poem, originally a ballad, begins with a report from the animal world: late last night the dog was speaking of you, the snipe (a wading marsh bird)was speaking of you; nature, both domesticated and wild, knows and tells ofthe absent seducer, who is transformed into a lonely bird. The stanza ends with an imprecation, a spell: may you be without a mate until you find me.

This is followed by series of three stanzas, all of which start with a
statement followed by three lines of elaboration, eg, to paraphrase the econd stanza: you promised, and you lied, and here's what happened; third stanza: you promised me something very hard for you to do, and here's an elaboration of the different promises; stanza four: you promised me a thing not possible, and here's an elaboration of the impossible things. It would be an easy format for a balladeer to remember: opening promise/subsequent elaboration. In the third and fourth stanzas the 'thing' in the first line
of each stanza is singular; the things promised are multiple, and
increasingly surreal, suggesting multiple encounters, each with increasingly outlandish promises. That animals speak, that gloves could be made of the skin of a fish, shoes of the skin of a bird, a ship of gold -- all effectively testify to the credulousness of the young girl betrayed.

In the following three stanzas the girl tells of her life: at the 'Well of Loneliness' she sees the world, but not her boy (whom we know to actually exist, from the 'has' in the following line.) I like to think of this boy as pre-figured by the 'bleating lamb' of the second stanza. The next stanza places the seduction as occurring on Palm Sunday, 'the last before Easter Sunday'. The introduction of Easter complicates the poem somewhat, introducing not just the notion of resurrection, but in the third line, forcing us to ask what the 'myself' opens up: is she to be like Christ, onhis knees suffering; that would affect how we understand the 'you' of the
fourth line: no longer just the absent lover, but now God?

And of course, good advice comes to late, as mother's words (in stanza 7)are like 'shutting the door after the house was robbed.' Stanza 8interrupts the previous three narrative stanzas for an emotional description focussing on the blackness in her heart (and in a homophonic playing on 'sole'/soul, keeping the move to the metaphysical alive).

The poem concludes with four wonderfully balanced lines: you have taken all, is the sense, now on a stage that is timeless and universal. Here the move from the particular -- the many 'me/I/myself's' and 'you's' of the poem -- to something more eternal is completed. The last line echoes the last of
the first stanza, each beginning with 'and', each ending with the similar 'find me'/'from me', and most importantly, each conveying the dialectic of presence and absence (of the lover, of the boy, of God) that equals fear of loss.

David

From: "Penny de Ruyter"

I love this poem - because it conveys to me so well the pain and anguish of
a lost love.

From: "Joe O'Neill"

Hi, Penny,
I enjoyed the poem , Donal Og, sent in by David: you may remember it was
used in the John Huston /Joyce film, "The Dead". I also knew it was by
'Anon', but didn't that it was an 8th c Irish/Gaelic ballad.
Any chance you could point me to a particular source where the ballad is
to be found, even perhaps in Lady Gregory's works ?
Regards and thanks.
Joe.

From: Stuart Wighton

Dear David,
Donal Og is one of my very favourite poems! I feel that the "boy" is a
young priest. I won't go into great detail here as we have to keep the
comments short, but read between the lines!!
Collette

From: "Ian Baillieu"

Some detailed information about the Gaelic folksong origins
of this poem, and the texts of many different song lyric
versions of it in English, including stanzas not included by
Lady Gregory in her famous translation, can be found (amid
banter of the kind common in discussion groups) in postings
on the following websites:
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=4277
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=14949
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=14957
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=21913
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=28244

Subject: RE: ADD: Donal Og
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 29 Jan 04 - 10:55 PM

Wolfgang, the song's a lot more powerful in Irish. Here's Augusta Gregory's more literal translation:

O Donall og, if you go across the sea,
bring myself with you and do not forget it;
and you will have a sweetheart for fair days and market days,
and the daughter of the King of Greece beside you at night.

It is late last night the dog was speaking of you;
the snipe was speaking of you in her deep marsh.
It is you are the lonely bird through the woods;
and that you may be without a mate until you find me.

You promised me, and you said a lie to me,
that you would be before me where the sheep are flocked;
I gave a whistle and three hundred cries to you,
and I found nothing there but a bleating lamb.

You promised me a thing that was hard for you,
a ship of gold under a silver mast;
twelve towns with a market in all of them,
and a fine white court by the side of the sea.

You promised me a thing that is not possible,
that you would give me gloves of the skin of a fish;
that you would give me shoes of the skin of a bird,
and a suit of the dearest silk in Ireland.

O Donall og, it is I would be better to you than a high, proud, spendthrift lady:
I would milk the cow;
I would bring help to you; and if you were hard pressed,
I would strike a blow for you.

O, ochone, and it's not with hunger or with wanting food, or drink, or sleep,
that I am growing thin,
and my life is shortened;
but it is the love of a young man has withered me away.

It is early in the morning that I saw him coming,
going along the road on the back of a horse;
he did not come to me; he made nothing of me;
and it is on my way home that I cried my fill.

When I go by myself to the Well of Loneliness,
I sit down and I go through my trouble;
when I see the world and do not see my boy,
he that has an amber shade in his hair.

It was on that Sunday I gave my love to you;
the Sunday that is last before Easter Sunday.
And myself on my knees reading the Passion;
and my two eyes giving love to you for ever.

O, aya! my mother, give myself to him;
and give him all that you have in the world;
get out yourself to ask for alms,
and do not come back and forward looking for me.

My mother said to me not to be talking with you to-day,
or to-morrow, or on the Sunday;
it was a bad time she took for telling me that;
it was shutting the door after the house was robbed.

My heart is as black as the blackness of the sloe,
or as the black coal that is on the smith's forge;
or as the sole of a shoe left in white halls;
it was you put that darkness over my life.

You have taken the east from me; you have taken the west from me;
you have taken what is before me and what is behind me;
you have taken the moon, you have taken the sun from me;
and my fear is great that you have taken God from me!

Subject: RE: ADD: Donal Og
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Jan 04 - 11:18 PM

Guest maryann- that should be 18th c., not 8th.
See Philippa, thread 14957, post of 30 Oct 01, 0712 AM.
Use link above to Lyr. Add Donal Og (Young Donald).

Subject: RE: ADD: Donal Og
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 29 Jan 04 - 11:50 PM

And it's The Rattle Bag, not The School Bag, of course. On the whole it's a good idea to edit copy-and-paste jobs taken from discussion lists, as they frequently contain multiple errors and irrelevant comment (of which we have a great deal in the Forum already!) Don't mistake me; we are always pleased to get new information, and it was a kind thought.

Subject: RE: ADD: Donal Og
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jan 04 - 06:47 AM

click here to see thread 14957

Subject: RE: ADD: Donal Og
From: GUEST,Eoin O neill
Date: 01 Mar 04 - 05:18 AM

Aréir do chuala mé leagan iontach den amhrán ar an CD 'Idir an dá sholas'. 'Sé ceann de na dánta is fearr atá fánta again.

Subject: Lyr Add: Donal Og
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Oct 04 - 11:06 PM

Here is a more recent and more powerful translation, from An leabhar mor, The Great Book of Gaelic (2002)

Dónall Óg, if you cross the sea,
take me with you and don't forget,
I'll be your toy, brought home from market,
a Greek king's daughter in your bed.

I'd know you anywhere, even if you crossed the ocean,
your hair is blond, your eyes grey,
there are twelve curls in your branching yellow hair
like cowslip or a rose in a garden.

The dog gave you away late last night,
the snipe betrayed you far out in the wet bog
as you moved like a woodkern through the woods—
may you never have a women till you find me again.

You promised me something you knew was a lie,
That you'd wait for me by the sheepfold;
I whistled, and called you three hundred times
And got no answer, only the bleat of a lamb.

You promised me something that was hard to give,
golden ships with silver masts,
twelve towns with a fair in each one
and a limewhite palace beside the sea.

You promised me something that was impossible,
gloves that were made from the skins of fish,
birdskin shoes and a suit of the dearest silk in Ireland.
Dónall Óg, better you had me
than some proud wealthy gentlewoman;
I'd milk a cow and churn the cream for you
and I'd fight beside you when the blows were struck.

And, oh, it's not hunger or lack of food
and drink or sleep that has me thin
and worn but the love of a young man
has left me wasted.

Early this morning I saw him going the road on horseback;
he never came near me and asked me for nothing
and when I came home I cried my eyes out.

When I go down and sit by the Well of Loneliness
I sit there nursing my trouble,
when I see the whole world without my boy
And the shadow of amber high in his cheeks.

That was the Sunday I gave you my love,
the last Sunday before Easter,
I was on my knees reading the Passion
and my eyes never stopped reciting their love to you.

My mother told me not to speak to you
Today or tomorrow or Sunday;
it was too late for warnings,
like shutting the door when the thief is gone.

And yes, mother, give him to me,
give him all you have in the world,
go out in the streets and beg,
only don't deny me what I ask.

My heart is black as the sloe,
as black as coal in a dark forge,
or the sole of a shoe in white halls,
and there's a black cloud over my laugh.

You took the east from me and you took the west from me,
you took before me and you took behind me,
you took the moon and the sun from me,
and I'm greatly afraid, you took God from me.

Subject: RE: ADD: Donal Og
From: GUEST,Noreen
Date: 22 Oct 04 - 06:08 AM

I don't know about more powerful, GUEST, but certainly another wonderfully moving version of this beautiful love song.

(Wolfgang, I will sing it for you when next we meet at a Eurogathering. My version, like yours, is a combination of the two sources.)

Subject: RE: ADD: Donal Og
From: GUEST,ChrisJ
Date: 23 Oct 04 - 04:01 AM

This is a wonderful song and singers who do it in English will do well to remember that the words 'Donal Og' are best pronounced in the Irish or Gaelic way: doh-nal ogue. This helps to give the authentic feel.

Subject: RE: ADD: Donal Og
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 23 Oct 04 - 11:42 AM

Noreen, does this mean you'll be coming to France? Wonderful news!

Subject: RE: ADD: Donal Og
From: Wolfgang
Date: 23 Oct 04 - 11:48 AM

Noreen,

I'm looking forward to that. BTW, I ponder whether I should try singing a song too.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Donal Og
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 05:01 PM

I'm posting this note on this thread too...

Michael McGoldrick has Dónall Óg on his album 'Fused.' It's a great recording, you all should go check it out.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Donal Og
From:
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 07:33 PM

According to Ulrick O'Connor, in his book Celtic Dawn, the poem which starts: "O Donall og, if you go across the sea/bring myself with you and do not forget it:/and you will have a sweetheart for fair days and market days/and the daughter of the king of Greece beside you at night" - is actually called The Grief of a Girl's Heart. It was sung throughout Galway and was translated from the Gaelic by Lady Gregory. The second verse reads: "You promised me, and you said a lie to me/that you would be there before me where the sheep are flocked;/I gave a whistle and three hundred cries to you'and I found nothing there but a bleating lamb..."

Subject: Lyr Add: DONAL OG
From: GUEST,caoimhe
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 07:14 PM

Here is another version of Donal og you may not have heard.It was thought to me by a well respected collector of irish songs and ballads,Frank Harte.This is a Frank O'Conner translation.This is the version i sing.

DONAL OG

Oh my donal og, when you sail o'er the water
Take me with you to be your partner
Tis at fair or at market you would be well looked after
And you can sleep with the Greek kings daughter

My donal og,you'll not find me lazy
Not like some high born expensive lady
I'll do your milking and i'll nurse your baby
And if you were set on, i would back you bravely

I saw you first of a Sunday evening
T'was at the easter as i was grieving
And it was of Christs passion that i was reading
But my eyes,they were on you and my fond heart bleeding

And you said you would meet me,but you were lieing
Behind the sheep fold as day was dying
I whistled first,then i started hailing
But all i could hear was the young lambs wailing

And you said you would give me,but if you talk lightly
Fish skin gloves that would fit me tightly
And bird skin shoes when i would go out walking
And a silken dress that would set ireland talking

Oh my mother she said we should not be meeting
That i shoild pass you by and not give you a greeting
T'was a good time suerly she chose for cheating
With the stable bare and the horse retreating

Oh black as the slow is the heart inside me
Black as the cole is the grief that drives me
Black as a boot print on shining hallways
And t'was you that blackened it forever and always

For you took whats before me and whats behind me
You took east and west when you would not mind me
The sun moon and stars from my sky you've taken
And god likewise,for i am much mistaken

my Donal og, when you sailed o'er the water


The verse (Tis a good time surely she chose for cheating)is'nt assuming that the mother was having an affair with donal,the daughter is simply saying it's usless telling her to ignore the man when she's already in love with him(with the stable bare and the horse retreating)

Caoimhe(Dublin)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Donal Og
From: GUEST,Wolfgang
Date: 02 Feb 05 - 06:31 AM

Thanks for posting this beautiful variant.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Donal Og
From: GUEST,Com Seangan
Date: 02 Feb 05 - 07:31 PM

Whoeber saif , I think JTT, thatonly the Irish version captures tyhe strengthnof tyhe song is correct. I know of no othersong in any language with such strength - especially in the last Stanza. Lady Gregory's Englsih version (althgough falling short of the origianl Irish) best captures the emotion. It was the version quoted in Joyce's The Dead.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Donal Og
From: GUEST,Bill the Collie
Date: 03 Feb 05 - 07:42 AM

What a lovely thread.
I've been a great fan of the song since the 60's when the Fisher family put their version on their album.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Donal Og
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Feb 05 - 06:28 AM

if you notice the list of related threads at the top of the page, the longest thread, first link given on the list, includes the Frank O'Connor translation and says that it is the one the Fisher family recorded. Original Gaelic verses are also given in that thread

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Donal Og
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 26 Apr 05 - 03:13 PM

Could anyone help me find the sheet music for this song? I've tried to play it by ear and I've tried searching for hours and have not come up with it.

Thanks,
Nick

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Donal Og
From:
Date: 31 Mar 06 - 05:47 AM

Could you send me the notation for Donal Og

    thanking you in anticipation

         James Potter

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Donal Og
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Apr 06 - 04:28 AM

there's an abc at the first thread in the blue list at the top of the page

if it is from Peter Kennedy's book I think it will be the Ulster tune rather than the one sung in Connemara
there is music in a few song books
is anyone emailing James directly?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Donal Og
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 04 May 12 - 06:58 AM

There are many versions of the song Dónal Óg to be found in the gaeltacht areas of Ireland with many different melodies.There are many different verses and verse orders depending on the area and the preference of the singer. All variants are equally valid and enrich the tapestry of song that exists in the Gaelic language.Dónal Óg is one of the finest songs we have!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Donal Og
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 04 May 12 - 08:03 PM

I have been corrected several times for singing the greek kings daughter instead of the more probable Great King's daughter.Was she the high kings child?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Donal Og
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 05 May 12 - 03:28 AM

Greek king. Irish songs routinely refer to the daughter of the King of Greece and of the King of Spain.

Nice version here by Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill (which name in English would be Margaret, daughter of Donal).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Donal Og
From: GUEST,Guest Brian
Date: 17 May 12 - 06:50 AM

Greek kings daughter is correct as the Line in the Gaelic song says
níon rí Gréige mar chéile leapa agat......    an Ghréig is Greece of course

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Donal Og - various translations
From: GUEST,franc 91
Date: 17 Aug 15 - 01:33 PM

This is another song to be found in the book and CD 'Tidil Eidil Ero - Amhranaiocht Thraidisiunta don Aos Og' published by Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne, Baile an Fheirtéaraigh, Co. Chiarrai.