Ceann Eile

Scéal gan Dath (A Story without Colour)

i.e. an unlikely story

And one read black where the other read white, his hope

The other man’s damnation:

Up the Rebels. To Hell with the Pope

And God Save - as you prefer - the King or Ireland                

                                               Excerpt from      Autumn Journal by Louis MacNiece

Colours have different shades of meaning depending on context; you can see red, feel blue and go green with envy. An English speaker will know that certain colours are associated with particular moods and states. Red suggests anger, blue is sadness, green is jealousy in the above context. The Irish language has its own unique way of expressing moods and states through the use of colours that is often amusingly different than in English. I have not come across the term  ‘black humour’ in Irish but you can be ‘left black with the laughter’, ‘fagadh dubh leis na gáirí’.  Colours are not so ‘black and white’ in Irish so you have to be careful not to translate them literally. ‘Gorm’ is blue according to the first entry in Ó Dónaill’s dictionary but if we translate ‘daoine gorm’ literally, we end up with a race of ‘blue people’ rather than ‘black people’ as intended. ‘Glas’ as a colour can also prove tricky to translate as it can mean ‘green’, ‘grey’, or even ‘blue’

depending on context. Describing a person’s eye colour in Irish to a policeman as ‘Glas-súileach’ can mean the person was grey-eyed, blue-eyed or green-eyed! The situation gets more confusing when you find that Irish also has the word ‘uaine’ to describe ‘green’ things and ‘liath’  to describe ‘grey’ things. The following phrases and tips might help you become more colour conscious in Irish.

Bán, white

‘Bán’ has many meanings other than the colour ‘white’.

Song snippets:

‘Nach mise a chuirfeadh cluain ar a báncneas mín

Agus bhéarfaidh mé go Tuaifín í grá mo chroí.’         From the song ‘Gardaí An Rí’

Oh wouldn’t I seduce the lady with the skin so fair and fine

And I’d carry you off to Tuaifín, my sweetheart 

‘… ógánach bhán atá cráite (tormented) I do dhiaidh’

A raw young youth yearning madly for you         

                                                                                 From ‘Bean an Fhir Rua’  A song about a young man who is unashamedly in love with another man’s wife 

( the red-haired man’s wife of the song title)  

‘Tiocfaidh mo rúnsearc le bánú an lae’

My darling will come at the dawn of the day          From ‘Tiocfaidh an Samhraidh’

Translating even an apparently simple word like ‘bán’ can have its pitfalls for the unwary translator. In these next two song lines ‘bán’ is used twice in quick succession with different meanings:

‘Ag iomáin ar an trá bhán

Is mo chamán bán I mo dhorn liom’ 

‘Playing hurling on the white strand

 My trusty hurling stick grasped firmly in my hand’     From ‘Airdí Cuan’

An bád bán, the emigrant ship

Páipéar bán, blank paper

Bánghlas, pale green

Mo chailín bán, my darling girl

Ní bán dom tracht air, I ought to mention it. I’d be crazy not to mention it

Tá sé imithe bán ina diaidh, he’s crazy about her, he’s chasing her like mad. 

Béal bán a dhéanamh le duine,  to butter  someone up

Tá saol an mhadra bháin aige, he has a cosy life

Cuirdín bán, wild  parsnip

Feoil bhán, fat meat

Feoil dhearg, raw/red lean meat

Dubh, black

‘Dubh’ as a prefix intensifies the meaning and can equate to words like ‘utterly’, ‘depressingly’, ‘evil’ , ‘dark’, ‘dismal’

Song snippet:

Fuígfidh mise an baile seo mar tá sé dubhghránna…

(Fágfaidh)

I’ll leave this town because it’s so dismal and ugly

Rinne tú go dubh orm é, you let me down badly

Black mark for translation of ‘black’

Beidh an Bíobla sin Liútair ’s a dhubhtheagaisc éithigh…

That bible of Luther and his false black teaching,     line of a poem with translation quoted in A History of the Irish Language

The above translation of the Irish word ‘dubh’ for the English word ‘black’  ignores all the other possible meanings found in Ó Donaill’s Irish dictionary. The translator fails to provide the reader with the true meaning of  ‘dhubhtheagaisc’, which summons up more the connotation of ‘evil teachings’.  The non-standard English phrase ‘black teaching’ is just as meaningless in English as the non-existent terms ‘blue teaching’ or ‘purple teaching’ might be to an English reader.

In Irish you can be left ‘black with the laughter’, ‘fagadh dubh leis na gáirí’.

An Fear Dubh, diúltamid dó, have nothing to do with the evil devil

Faoi dubh na hiongan don bháis, within an inch of death

        (Black dirt of a fingernail)

Níl dubh d’iongan ann, there’s not a scrap in it.

Na dromanna dubha a chur le rud, to utterly renounce something.

Chruthaigh sé (go dubh is go bán) orm go raibh an ceart aige, he asserted (in unmistakeable terms) to me that he was right

Dhiúltaigh sé go dubh agus go bán é a dheanamh, he absolutely refused to do it.

Thug sé dubh is daite dó é, he gave it to him hot and heavy

              (Black and colourful)

Tá an áit dubh le daoine,  the place is packed with people

Las dubh, safety match

Dearg, red

An cosán dearg, the beaten track

Bhí sé ina chraiceann dearg, he was stark naked

Bhí sé ar deargbhuile liom, he was furious with me

Mo dheargnáire iad! I’m utterly ashamed of them!

Feoil dhearg, raw/red lean meat

Feoil bhán, fat meat

D’ól sé dearg é, he drank it raw

Bí an t-ádh dearg air, he was really lucky

Ní raibh aon phioc de fáil de, bán ná dearg, there was not a trace of him to be found.

Scríos dearg orthu! Blast them!

Tógfaidh siad an gáir dhearg, they will raise an uproar (dic.)

Buí, yellow

Buí - Same Word Spelling - Other Meanings

Song snippets:

‘Aithreachas Chathail Bhuí’ 

The Repentance of Grateful Cahill   Title of religious song

Ag altú buí, saying grace (thanks)

Ba bhuí bocht liom cupán tae a fháil,  

I was more than glad/grateful to get a cup of tea 

Buí used as verb:

Thósnaigh na deoch ag buíú agus ag órgú na gcuimhní aige. 

The drink began to mellow and colour his memories.             From   Í Siúd p.123

Bean buí, merry (loose) woman

Diabhal buí, ugly devil 

Tiocfaidh an lí buí air, he will have a fit

(Lit. The colour yellow will come on him)

Buí used to emphasize or intensify meaning of another word:

‘B’fhearr liom go mbeinn chomh folláin léi, má bhí sí sleamhain buí féin.’ ‘I wouldn’t mind being as healthy as her, as she is quiet a slippery one.’

Dath, colour

Is tú an dathadóir!, what an exaggerator you are!

Tá dath ar do scéal,  your story is plausible

Scéal gan dath, an unlikely story

 Níl a dhath air, there’s nothing the matter with him 

Glas, green

‘Glas’ can mean ‘a lock’ as well as a colour. Here we deal with it as a colour.

Glas a chur ar do theanga, 

to seal one's lips; to shut up.

Generally ‘glas’ is used for nature’s greenery and ‘uaine’ is used for man-made green colour.

e.g. Pis ghlas, green peas

e.g. Líne uaine, green line (e.g. Referring to a rail line in the Metro or ‘Luas’ if you live in Dublin and use the light rail system)

Song snippets:

Is iomaí ógánach súilghlas ag tnúth lena pósadh,

there are many starry-eyed (gullible) youths longing to marry her    From An Chúlfhionn/ The Coolin

Súil na glasóige a chaitheamh ar dhuine, to cast sheep’s eyes at some one 

Is glas a shú, it is poor nourishment, it is of little benefit

(Lit. It’s juice is green)

ógánach glas, callow youth                                                                                  

Saighdiúirí glasa, raw troops 

Liath, grey

(Leonadh is) liathadh orthu! Bad cess to you!

In Irish you mix colours to get different shades of colour and meanings.

The short story ‘Siúracha’ uses the colour ‘liath’ in various ways over several pages:

…,Cé go raibh sí ag tabhairt liathshúil eaglach ár dtreo anois agus arís.    From  Í Siúd p.157

…, Although she cast a cold fearful glance in our direction now and again.

…,na súile móra liathghorma lán d’alltacht.  Ibid P.164

…, big light blue eyes full of amazement.

…agus craiceannn liathbhuí tarraicthe tharstu. Ribí scáinte liatha gruaige,… ibid p. 165

…, and sallow skin stretched over them (referring to her bones). Strands of thinning grey hair…

Banaltra óg, buidéal mór liathchorca aici agus olla cadáis.  ibid p.166

A young nurse, carrying a big lilac bottle and cotton wool.

Translations that can leave you wide-eyed

in Amongst Women John McGahern describes his character named ‘Rose’ as having ‘large grey eyes’. He mentions those ‘large grey eyes’ twice on page 24:

Firstly, McGahern tells us … her large grey eyes were intelligent.

In the Irish translation the ‘grey’ colour of her eyes is ignored and we get:  

 bhí clisteacht ina suile móra leathana, (her large wide eyes were intelligent)

Further on McGahern again refers to those eyes:

…except for the friendliness of her large grey eyes.

The Irish translator gets a second bite at the cherry and gets both the size and the colour of the eyes this time:   

…Murach na súile móra liatha a bhí lán le cairdeas aici.     

                                                                                             From Idir Mhná p.42 and  Amongst Women p.24

In fairness, I give another example of a good translation dealing with colour taken from the same book:

‘Michael had become her favourite’ is rendered into Irish as ‘Bhí Micheál ina bhuachaillín bán aici faoi seo.’

And if you felt annoyed by any of the above you might like this colourful phrase:

Ar bhiorán buí bhuailfinn é, for two pins I’d strike him 

Bhuel, seo duit é! (Well, there you have it! ) There’s a lot more to colour than meets the eye.