Colourful Conversation 'As Gaeilge'

Here are a few colourful conversational titbits that could prove useful if you're ever stuck for a word while engaged in the rare art of speaking 'as Gaeilge' to another human being lost in the Connemara wilderness.

In English we can concede that there are two sides to a story but in Irish we use 'fishy' metaphoric language:

Tá dhá thaobh ar an mbád. There are two sides to the boat
Thug sé an eang leis. He got clear away
(Lit. He took the (fishing) net with him)
“Ní hé an té a rinne an bád a rinne an teach.” The guy who made the boat didn't make the house.

And if you're surprised by that then...
Níl guth agam ort, I don’t blame you

Difficulties abound in speaking Irish so repeat the next lines till someone in your household tells you to...  Éist do bhéal! Be quiet!
Ní thig liom guth a chur ar, I can’t say/pronounce it.
                  (voice)
Níl a fhios agam go barainneach. I don’t know exactly.( very useful)
Christmas stocking fillers follow:
Mo dhearmad! By the way! I forgot!
Mó sa mhó, more and more
Measa sa measa, worse and worse
Mó sa chách, most of all
Faoi nó thairis, more or less, thereabouts

Tá mí-shásta leis. It’s awkward to do. 

Agus cogar ...
Ní dhéanfaidh sé spuaic ar do theanga, it won’t do you any harm to say it. (Lit.) It won’t make a blister on your tongue.

But you might stop repeating Irish phrases out loud because:

Níl an iomarca de maith agat, too much of it is not good for you

And although Irish might not blister your tongue it could incite annoyance in others, so learn this phrase to avoid danger:
“Tá ardú ag teacht air,”  
He is getting agitated,

And when you hear these sort of  phrases it's time to act:

Borráiste caca! Load of shite!

Cuir caol ort féin! make yourself scarce!

As you make your escape (agus tú ag tabhairt an eang leat) you might mutter under your breath:

Ní beag a bhfuil ráite, (there is) enough said
Tá a gha ionam. He has it in for me.
        (Spear, dart)
Sutach! brat

Tá seachrán beag air. He’s a bit gone in the head

You might feel disappointed that instead of hearing compliments (e.g. Tá blas agus dath ar a chuid cainte, his speech is clear and colourful.)

You hear instead:
Tá  struip siúil faoi, he is travelling fast

Níl lámh ná cos air, he can do nothing right

Ní fiú seilog é! It’s not worth a damn.
         (Spit)
But others might be more willing to listen to your attempts at speaking 'as Gaeilge' even if you have a blas Béarla rather than the more coveted native Irish accent or  blas Gaeilge. 

Bhí sise ag tabhairt córas dó, She was giving him encouragement, urging him on.

But who cares about peoples opinions; you express indifference to them in Irish mar seo:

Ní cás orm iad. They are of no concern to me.

An inner voice reminds you of the following:

Ní de do mháthair a chuaigh tú mar sin! Céad slán di!
You didn’t take after your mother then! God help her

Níl gean na gnaoi agat ar 'inner voices' and you exclaim ('as Gaeilge' no less!):

Ná bí i do dhuine seafóideach! Don’t be silly!

Ba beag an lua…It would be the rare time…

that you would exclaim in Irish because there are too many Púca na n-adharc, a bugbear in doing so. 

However, is bheag leat an chontúirt go minic, you think little of danger at times.

And for some unknown reason you think of the phrase:

Is ionann an cás an t-éag is an bás. It amounts to the same thing ‘deceased’ and ‘dead’.
Thinking in Irish gets gloomy as another phrase pops into  your head:

Is orm a bhí an crann, I was the unfortunate one (to attempt Irish?) and then you brighten up thinking of all the great phrases in Irish that refer to trees:

Crann clis, penis
(Yes! Irish speakers have them too)

Ar mo chrann atá sé, it’s my turn

An lá a gcuirfidh tú crann air, whatever day you choose,

Dul as do chrann, to fly into a rage

I'm sure there are more phrases with 'crann' but I'll heed the advice that you can..
Dul chun seanbhróg le rud. To go too far with something 

(lit. go to an old shoe with something)

Sin agat é, there you have it

Hope you find the odd 'focal spraoi' (humourous word) in the  above text.

Ní chuireann tharat é sin a dhéanamh, I wouldn’t put it passed you to do so.

And keep in mind that our ancestors never talked in Irish behind anyone's back they talked behind their heads as the following phrase proves:

Ag caint orm ar chúl mo chinn, talking behind my back

                                 (from ceann, head)

Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona daoibh! 
Happy St. Patrick's Day To You All!

Bain taitneamh as an lá. Enjoy the day ...and don't be... Bheith sáite sa luaith (ashes), stick-in-the-mud, sit-by-the-fire

Here are a few unusual words of advise in Irish.

On Paddy's Day don't...

Bó a dhéanamh duit féin, to make a beast of yourself.

And if someone is making a 'cow' (Bó) of themselves, let it not be at your expense...

Ná lig do chnámh leis an madra, don’t be imposed upon.

(Literally: Don't leave your bone with the dog.)

When your friend has had one too many you can offer the following explanation in perfect Irish:

Tá se éirithe amach ón gceart, he has gone off his rocker 

Dhúil sé an chíoch bhradach, he inherited his bad qualities from his mother. (Dic.)

(He was suckled at the breast of a thieving hussy. JM)

In your attempt to say all that in perfect Irish you might hear some other wise ass 'Gaelgoire' say...

Cac sé ar na  huibheacha, he made a mess of it  (Lit. He shit on the eggs.)

But you can have the last word with...

Nífidh uisce é, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. (Lit. Water will wash it away)

For more fun Irish phrases click on link to post below.

Is é do lá fómhar é,* It’s your lucky day! 

Rud saor in aisce/Free Stuff

Type in any of these Irish Phrases on the free app at www.abair.ie and hear how a maschine posing as a ‘cainteoir ó dhúchas’ (native speaker) might utter the above ‘cúpla focal’. 

You can also download the recording of the phrases entered for repeated listenings on your computer or mobile phone.

The Islandman ....'bosh and bunk' or 'a masterly translation'?


*  'A greater parcel of bosh and bunk than Flower's Islandman has rarely been imposed on the unsuspecting public.' Flann O'Brien

'Dr Flower is the ideal interpreter...a masterly translation' Professor D.A. Binchy

When I first set out to read 'An t-Oileánach' my objective was to improve my reading and comprehension skills in Irish. I thought I could speed up that process by comparing 'An t-Oileánach' page by page with 'The Islandman', a translation of the book into English by Robin Flower.  But having trained as a translator I found myself more and more critiquing the translation. I revisited a textbook I studied as an undergraduate called Approaches To Translation by Newmark and took note of the following key points to see how the translators of 'An t-Oileánach' dealt with these issues in attempting to translate an Irish 'masterpiece' or 'classic' for an English readership.

In 'Approaches To Translation' Newmark states:

1. The translator  has to assist his reader...not funk the issue by rendering it 'correctly'. p.128

2. The translator must not use a word or phrase that sounds intuitively unnatural or artificial to him. p.129

3. Equivalent-effect principle    ...Thus if the SL (*) author deviates widely from the collocational, lexical, syntactic, metrical, prosodic, semantic norms of his own language, one would expect the TL text to do likewise, and to have the flavour of a translation. p.133

4. Figurative language only becomes meaningful, if it is recreated in the metaphors of the target language and its culture, or, if this is not possible, reduced to its sense.  p.45
metaphors ...view with scepticism. p.89

Assisting The Reader

1. The translator  has to assist his reader...not funk the issue by rendering it 'correctly'.

While I am mainly concerned here with critiquing Robin Flower's translation 'The Islandman', for the purpose of comparison, I have chosen a short excerpt from the original 'An t-Oileánach' and assess how Robin Flower in  'The Islandman' and Barrister & Sowby in  'The Islander' translate this same excerpt. Then I suggest how I might render the same passage, told in the original as a humorous anecdote.

Translating Humour

The Irish pride themselves on their great wit (after all, Oscar Wilde and G.B.Shaw, both Irishmen, are world famous for quotable gems of  wit ). But I doubt that anyone in Ireland, or Dingle or anywhere in the world would fall around the place laughing at a man politely greeting a woman on entering a shop. And it beggars belief that the words  'Good day! Mrs. Atkins' should be described as the 'quip that caused the greatest fun there'd been in Dingle since the Famine'.
The people of Dingle can't have been that hard up for a laugh that a common greeting sent them into hysterics of laughter to the extent that they 'drop stone-dead'! Surely, something has been lost in translation?

Here is the original text:

Craobh de chuallacht strainséartha a b'ea an tigh mór seo, le muintir Atkins, a raibh gach sórt á dhíol ann. Tigh bréa ornáideach a b'ea é. Bhí deilbh mná ar chathaoir idir an dá chuntúirt ann, toirt aon mhná tuaithe inti agus a haghaidh ar an ndoras.
Ar dhul thar doras isteach do mo dhuine gan chiall, bain de a hata ag beannú don bhean.
'Dia is Muire duit, a mháistreás Atkins!' ar seisean.
Sin é an carúl is mó a bhain sult amach i nDaingean Uí Chúise ó bhí an drochshaol ann.
Ní raibh fear ó aon aird istigh ná gur thit fuar marbh le snaidhmeanna gáirí, fir oibre an tí agus huachtaráin chomh maith, ar chloisint chainte an fhir bhaoith dóibh. Dá mbeadh dealramh an iomarca dí air, cad é an tábhacht cad a déarfadh nó a dhéanfadh a léithéid, ach is air ná raibh sé.
 'An t-Oileánach'
 Helicon p.77


Flower's Translation
The big shop was a branch of a company from another part-Atkins's- selling all sorts of goods.
It was a fine handsome shop. There was a model of a woman standing on a chair between the two counters facing the doorway, as bulky as any woman of the countryside.  When my man was coming through the door, he swept off his hat in greeting to the woman!
'Good day! Mrs. Atkins,' says he.
Ever since the days of the great famine no speech has caused so much laughter in Dingle as that. There wasn't a man from anywhere in the shop that didn't drop stone-dead, every one of them, writhing with laughter, shopmen and masters alike, when they heard what the fool said. If there had been the faintest trace of too much drink on him, none of them would have given a thought to what a man in that state said or did; but he showed no sign of it.
 'The Islandman'   p.70


Barrister & Sowbys' Translation
The store was a branch of a foreign firm, where there was every sort of thing on sale.
It was a fine ornate store with a statuesque woman on a chair sitting between the two counters on either side, facing the door. She had the appearance of a countrywoman. When he went through the door the eejit took off his hat to greet the woman.
Good day! Mrs. Atkins
That quip caused the greatest fun there'd been in Dingle since the Famine. There wasn't a person from anywhere in there that didn't drop cold dead in stitches of laughter. So did the shop workers and bosses as well, hearing the talk of this silly man. If he had given the slightest appearance of being drunk, no one would have bothered about whatever he had to say or do, but there wasnt the slightest sign that he had taken any drink at all.
'The Islander'


Both of these translations failed to assist the reader because the translators got lost in a fog of translating words and ignored a key asset to any would-be translator., i.e. common sense.
If someone tells you a supposed joke or 'funny' story that fails to amuse you in the least, a common response would be to ask the question 'What's so funny about that?' Humour is a funny thing, get one word wrong or rush the punch-line and the joke falls flat. Both translators got caught out in translating the words 'deilbh mná', words which were crucial to get right if the incident was to be considered at all humorous. Another great asset to a translator is a good dictionary and Ó Dónaill's Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla provides excellent definitions and a wealth of contextual examples of usage.

According to Ó Dónaill 'deilbh' can mean:
1. frame, figure; shape, appearance.
As an example of usage he gives, 'Is brea an deilbh fir atá air', he is a fine figure of a man
2. weaving: Warp
3. = Dealbh
Now what interests here is the third meaning, so off we go again in search of further clarification and meanings. 'Dealbh', in turn, means  'statue'; an example given is dealbh chinn, bhrád, bust, head

Flower renders 'deilbh mná' as 'a model of a woman', and has her 'standing on a chair' and then describes her as 'bulky as any woman of the countryside' and confirms that it is definitely  a woman we are talking about here by 'correctly' rendering 'ag beannú don bhean' as 'in greeting to the woman!'


Barrister & Sowby render 'deilbh mná' as 'a statuesque woman' and have her 'on a chair'. Now comes an awkward grammatically incorrect sentence construction. The placement of 'sitting' after 'chair' implies the 'chair' and not the woman was doing the 'sitting' and also 'the counters on either side' begs the question- either side of what? But the real issue here is, that, just like Flower, they confirm that the story involves an actual person- a woman and not a statue or shop mannequin : 'She had the appearance of a countrywoman. ... the eejit took off his hat to greet the woman.'

If we translate 'deilbh mná' as 'a statue of a woman' and do not get sucked into translating 'correctly'
'ag beannú don bhean' as 'in greeting to the woman!' there is a chance we might get the humour of the author. Tomás Ó Criomhthain is a storyteller, not a writer, and in his book he does not necessarily dot every  'i' and cross every 't' in talking about his life. He assumed that it was clear that this story was about his brother-in-law saying hello to 'a statue of a woman' (deilbh mná),  He did not think it was necessary to  repeat 'deilbh mná' in the phrase 'ag beannú don bhean' to emphasize that point. What other 'woman' would he be talking about if not the 'deilbh mná'? But the story makes no sense and is devoid of humour if the reader is left in any doubt as to whether the author means 'a statue of a woman' or  'a woman'- an actual person.

Point 2.  Figurative language only becomes meaningful, if it is recreated in the metaphors of the target language and its culture, or, if this is not possible, reduced to its sense.

drop stone-dead, writhing with laughter

There are certain collocations that we associate instinctively with laughter and if we examine these two phrases there is something decidedly odd about them. Both phrases are connected with fear and painful experiences rather than laughter. If I had to make up a sentence with 'drop stone-dead', the first one that springs to mind is:

e.g. He dropped stone-dead with fright

If set as a multiple-choice question on correct word collocation which phrase would you choose?

a)writhing with laughter
or
b)writhing with pain


The phrase in the original Irish text is 'thit fuar marbh le snaidhmeanna gáirí'

So can we follow Newmark's advice and recreate in English find a metaphor or phrase that strikes us as similar in sentiment to the original. Yes! We have the phrase 'nearly died laughing'.

And we also have 'stitches of laughter' corresponding to 'snaidhmeanna gáirí'
'Thit' is past tense of the verb 'to fall', so we could say 'fall about in stitches of laughter'

Flower ignored all of these options and created unnatural phrases that broke another rule set down by Newmark; i.e. The translator must not use a word or phrase that sounds intuitively unnatural or artificial to him.

Barrister & Sowby went for a literal word-for-word translation of  'thit fuar marbh le snaidhmeanna gáirí' with 'drop cold dead in stitches of laughter'. Once again you have 'unnatural' sounding phrases.

The Principle of Equivalent-Effect: Syntax and Grammar

I remember seeing the simple sentence 'Yes, mother, I have three' translated into seventeen Indo-European languages  to show at a basic level their similarities  in syntax and lexicon.
Irish was not on that list, not out of prejudice but because all of those languages belong to Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) languages whereas Irish belongs to a tiny minority of languages in the world that use the structure Verb-Subject-Object (VSO). Other reasons for not including Irish are:

'Yes' -  no one-to-one corresponding word
'have'- no one-to-one corresponding verb
'three' - In Irish you have to know if 'three' refers to people or objects
'mother' - you must use 'a' before 'máthar' in the vocative case in Irish

It is obvious from this simple example that the unique characteristics of the Irish language will challenge even the best of translators. If the translator is to achieve the goal of 'equivalent-effect'  s/he must not be lured into rendering slavishly the syntax, lexicon, figurative language, or punctuation used in the original Irish. If the author of the original text uses grammatically correct plain ordinary language then the translator must do likewise .

What's wrong with this sentence from Flower's translation?
Ever since the days of the great famine no speech has caused so much laughter in Dingle as that.

'Ever since'... and a negative subject, in this case 'no speech' are not usually lumped together like this in standard English.

Change a couple of words and the sentence begins to appear more like English:

Not since the days of the great famine has a speech caused so much laughter in Dingle as that.

Another odd thing is the use of the word 'speech' to translate 'carúl'.

Even if you don't know Irish,  you do know that 'Good day! Mrs. Atkins' is hardly a 'speech'.

Barrister & Sowby do better at translating this sentence, though they could have referred to 'Good day! Mrs. Atkins'  as 'That greeting' rather than 'That quip'.

Componential analysis is an essential tool of the translator. If a mechanic were asked to take  the engine parts of one car and fit them into a completely different model of car you would expect him to take into account the  different dimensions and construction features of the new model. Likewise, the translator must take into account all the semantic elements of the original and reassemble them in the translation with due regard to the syntax and semantic norms of the language S/he is translating into.
The golden rule in translation is; 'always translate into your mother language'.   Of course, it is essential that the translator understands the foreign text but good accurate creative translation comes more from being a master of one's own mother tongue rather than the foreign tongue.
The three example translations above deal with the same information but show marked differences in style in translating that information for an English readership.


I have used an excerpt from Barrister & Sowbys'  'The Islander' to show how the same material in the original can be translated in different ways. However, in the following section I am solely critiquing Robin Flower's translation called 'The Islandman' to determine if it is, indeed, 'bosh and bunk' or 'a masterly translation'.

'Étude' syndrome 
What puzzles me is why Robin Flower, an Oxford scholar, chose to write such botched and blatantly incorrect English all the way through 'The Islandman'?  To try to find an answer to that question let's look at what happens in the translation process. The minute you decide to translate something you face what I call the 'Étude' syndrome or translation exposure of the warts of the original text.
Languages in themselves can be seductive and fascinating. In the film 'A Fish Called Wanda'  the character played by Jamie Lee Curtis is turned on by anything John Cleese mutters in her ear in Russian. The content didn't matter, it was the foreign 'exotic' sound of the language that proved so 'sexy' and seductive to her. But suppose our character wants to know what Cleese is saying? Now the translation process begins and the emphasis changes completely as the content assumes importance and comes under scrutiny. Translation strips the 'exotic' out of 'Étude' and reduces it to a plain boring 'Study'. However, even though I now know what 'Étude' means, it still remains more interesting and appealing than its counterpart 'Study'. I would definitely choose to call my musical composition an 'Étude' rather than a bland 'Study'.
Likewise, Flower faced the dilemma translators know all too well, namely, how do you get the 'exotic' nature of the original back into the translated text? Maybe the Oxford scholar thought he could spice up his translation by literally grafting Irish words, phrases , metaphors  and syntax onto grammatically incorrect English in a vein attempt to dispel a sense of the ordinary (translating what the author had for breakfast) or even banal (translating the many references to fish market prices) in the original that is totally exposed in the translation process. Perhaps the motive for his mad grammar was to grab the attention of the reader; a bit like the greengrocer in Bristol who deliberately stuck ungrammatical signs in his window as a ploy to get people into his shop. While they were pointing out the error of his way with words, he hoped they would spot something to buy. Certainly, Flower was not happy with the 'shortcomings' of standard idiomatic English. In his foreword, he admits that, 'The constant charm of Irish idiom, which is so delightful in the original, must necessarily be lost' and adds that 'it seemed best to adopt a plain, straightforward style, aiming at the language of ordinary men who narrate the common experiences of their life frankly and without cultivated mannerism.' However, Flower's stated aims for how he would tackle the translation are at odds with the translation he actually produced.

Flower concocted an ideolect that at times ruined the flow of the narrative and severely tested the comprehension skills of the most ardent reader. It puts his sanity into question if he thought that he was rendering 'the forthright, colloquial simplicity of the original' in 'plain' English when he wrote the following gibberish:

'When once he opened his mouth, the poet had a jut on his jaw to send his voice out.' p.87
'She dressed him up and down' p.73
We rubbed through the season and the fine weather with them, p.154 p165
 I must leave them now to rub along together till my story brings me back to them again. p.64

According to Professor A. Titley the 'voice' of the author of 'An t-Oileánach' 'is a voice that cuts through all the crap' and he also states that 'the shapes that are being thrown in this book are very simple, and obvious even unto the guileless mind.' Flower's mindset seems to have had more in common with the 'guileless mind' of the translator of The Binjiang Scenic Area Tour Notice who sets out the following rules for tourists:

3. Do not damage or rubbing the inscription.
4. No spitting and no pissing at public. The pet is not allowed to bring in.


Equivalent-effect principle
If we rephrase the quote about 'equivalent-effect' and apply it specifically to the translation into English of 'An t-Oileánach' we could say:

Given that the author of 'An t-Oileánach' does not deviate widely from the collocational, lexical, syntactic, metrical, prosodic, semantic norms of the Irish language, one would expect that the English text would not do so either, and would not have the flavour of a translation.

The following examples taken from 'The Islandman' give a 'flavour' of just how widely Robin Flower's translation deviates from standard English usage. 

for I was a man grown p.34
It wasn't in my strength to haul in the breadth of my nail or an inch of the net. p.237
When I had come home I must go out of doors again to find out if my relations were safe at home; p.227
I purposed to break in half of it that year...p.167
every night that came fine..p.166
in the upshot, p.220
full to the chin p89
I bolted it and a hunk of bread, and out of the door I went. p89 p.96
They pitched on me to go home p. 88
They were a wretched pair, not that I'm throwing it up against them
his business was to get the fine flower of the speech. p224

You could write a thesis on the  grammatical errors in the following sentence:

The year after he left us fish was to be had plentifully every night they could go after them. p.225

And try following this order:

'Out with them back again,' said they.226

But maybe it is that he's sickening for something,' said I p.216

Yes, the poor reader is 'sickening' for something to make sense in this book.

'How came that? said I p.216

Objects have a mind of their own and are capable of moving about by themselves:

Soon I saw two pots for tea coming to the edge of the ashes, p.210
There wasn't an oar or a canoe in the creek to go look for us. p.185
There was one Dunquin boat that never stirred  hand or foot to interfere. p.8 p.19

The morning was beginning to peer down, p178

Spot the foreigner:

a) the dark of morning till the dark of night p.172
 or
b) dawn to dusk

and so it fell out, (rud a thit amach) p.65 p.72
that there was  'the three-legged woman' p. 60
a fact that would give anybody 'a stitch in the heart' p.69

And talking about body parts:

'Have you got any hands since? says he. 
'What the hell is it to you whether I have them or not? says the ancient mariner p.202

(hands i.e 'crew')

The women whose husbands were in her began a long, soft, musical lament...p.153

No, this is not about group sex on the Blasket island, in 'her' refers to in 'the boat'.

Have you ever been 'broad awake' and up at
'the dapple of day'? p.182


He was a tall spare man,...p.68
Just the thing for a lonely woman


This is only a small random sample of the language used by Flower to translate  'the forthright, colloquial simplicity of the original'. Every page of the 'Islandman' provides its fair share of similar nuggets of strange, weird English. There were rich pickings in 'The Islandman' for the witty Flann O'Brien and he lost no time in publishing a parody of the book called 'An Béal Bocht' translated as 'The Poor Mouth'.

Flann O'Brien was also forthright in his condemnation of  Flower's translation. In his review of the book he declares : 'Mr Brooks in his article refers to the translation of An t-Oileánach by the late Robin Flower as being 'a failure'. Alas, Mr Brooks excels in charity, a charge never made at my own door. A greater parcel of bosh and bunk than Flower's Islandman has rarely been imposed on the unsuspecting public.'

Professor Seán Ó Coileáin in his preface to Barristers and Sowbys' translation of An t-Oileánach rejects Flann O'Brien's 'bosh and bunk' view,  and is 'more inclined to agree with the 'far more complimentary'  assessment of Flower's translation by the distinguished scholar Professor D.A. Binchy who claims : 'Dr Flower is the ideal interpreter...a masterly translation in which the sensitiveness of the poet and the accuracy of the scholar are blended in perfect harmony. (Studies, December 1934)'

Professor A. Titley also wants 'to be fair' to Dr. Flower, the Oxford scholar, and mainly comments on  Flower's introduction to 'The Islandman', where Flowers sets out the method of translation he intends to follow. He concludes that as far as avoiding Hiberno-English goes, Flowers 'largely succeeds, although some echoes and turnings and stray wisps of Irish slip through the net.'

Unlike Flann O'Brien, who is not afraid to call a spade a spade, all of theses distinguished Professors seem to excel 'in charity' toward Dr. Flower's translation. But is there not a wiff of the 'emperor's new clothes' and academia closing ranks in all this uncritical 'charity'?

I am not a 'distinguished Professor', nor a scholar, but I do hold a B.A. in translation and I agree wholeheartedly with Flann O'Brien's assessment that Robin Flower's translation is 'bosh and bunk' that never should have got past a good editor. In Translation Theory classes, Robin Flower's book 'The Islandman' would make an excellent text book on how to fail as a translator.

Finally, I would like to say that although I used a small excerpt  from 'The Islander'  by Barrister & Sowby to compare different approaches to translation, I do not wish to imply that their translation of 'An t-Oileánach' suffers from the same faults as Robin Flower's translation. On the contrary, 'The Islander' is a very readable, accurate, and 'colloquial' translation of An t-Oileánach.



* In this case the SL (Source Language) is Irish and the TL (Target Language) is English.

* Quote from Flann O'Brien/Myles na gCopaleen/Brian O'Nolan, published in the Irish Times in his column called "Cruiskeen Lawn".

Master Insults In Irish. A Chunúis!

Caithríona - Mise, a Bheartla? Mise ag tóraíocht béadáin! Thug sé a dheargéitheach. Cré na Cille p. 231
Caithríona - Me, Beartla? Me, trying to get gossip!  He told a blatant lie.

Considered one of the masterworks of modern Irish literature,Cré na Cille contains a wealth of ‘insulting’ words that spice up the speech of the characters in the book . In particular, the main character, Caithríona,  is very adept at ‘sceanach cainte’ (cutting, slashing talk). Most of the ‘insulting’ language below is taken from the pages of Cré na Cille by Máirtín Ó Cadhain. The book is described as a novel but really it's a play and I only began to appreciate how great this work was when I got it in the audio book format. The actors breathe life into the printed word and capture the wit and rhythmic flow of the Irish language.

Caithríona - Is beag is ionann thú agus an cunús sin Tom Rua... Cré p.220

Caithríona - At least you're not like that waster Tom Rua...

Béadáin a dhéanamh ar dhuine, cast aspersions on s.o., slander, gossip

Lucht spíde, detractors, slanderers

ag caitheamh spíde orainn, casting aspersions on us

An bacach! Lame begger!

An bodairlín bíogach! The measly little lout

A bhromairín! You little windbag!

A bhrogúis! You surly git!

An bualsach! Slut, scumbag                         

bualtaigh, smear with dung

Crap leat go deo! Get lost!

An cocaire! Cheeky person, upstart (jm)

Conablach, m., carcass, remains, hulk

Claimhín, dirty, mangy pest

A chunúis! You waster, slovenly git                    

Draoibeog, slut

Eallach, cow

Gáifeacht chainte, exaggerated, ostentatious talk

Gaige na maige, swaggering fop,dandy

Cock-of-the-walk

A ghraibairín, little scrounger

I once heard an Irish woman claim that the Irish language didn’t have a word that corresponded to the German word ‘Schadenfreud’ (i.e joy at the misfortune of others) and implying that because the word did not exist in Irish that Irish people did not indulge in these sort of unsavoury pleasures. Well, the Irish might not have a word like ‘Schadenfreud’  but they have a phrase … ‘Ag gáire faoi ionard a gcomharsan, laughing at their neighbours misfortune’.

Nóirín Sheáinín - Na lig ort go gcloiseann tú an So and So ar chor ar bith…

Caithríona - So and So! So and So!  Nóirín Sheáinín ag tabhairt So and So orm! 

Nóirín Sheáinín - Pretend you don't hear the So and So at all...

Caithríona - So and So! So and So!  Nóirín Sheáinín calling me a So and So.

The three ‘F’s : fuath, fearg agus fala; hate, anger, and spite 

Falchaí, adj. begrudging, mean, paltry

Leathbhrín, half-wit

An laisceach bhradach! The thieving scold, shrew!  Bid Shorcha Cré p.163

A mhagarlach! Big bollocks! Big scrotum!

Magarlán, m., old ‘bags’, dolt

An meirdreach, the prostitute

A phleoitín! You little idiot!

An priocsmut,m., nosey-parker

Ruibhseach, sharp tongued, abusive woman    Ruibh, venom, sting

Ráitseach f, wanton woman

Rálach, f., loose woman, harlot

Rampaire, m., sportive person, playboy

Raibiléir, rip, hussy, harlot

Radaire, m., flirt, reveller

Caithríona -  Ó, nach beag de mheas a bhí aige ( Lord Cockton) ar a mhótar ag cur raicleacha( her sister, Neil) mar sin isteach ann!...

Caithríona - Oh, what little respect he had for his motor car to allow a vixen like      her get into it!...

Sceanach cainte, cutting, slashing talk

Scramairí, scrounger

Steallaire, sprouter, tattler,  a squirt

Strapairlín bradach! Thieving hussy.                   

An scólachán breallach! Thin, worn out person, warped, useless blunderer!

An scólachán gránna, the ugly waster

Caithríona - Ní phósfainn thú, a scólacháin ghránna*, dá dtagadh caileannógach orm d'uireasa fir,' a deirim féin. Cré p.35

Caithríona - I'm telling you, I wouldn't marry you, you ugly waster, even if I were to break out in a green scum for the want of a man.

* Brian Mór

An sprochaillín uaibhreachan, snotty old bags    (loose flesh,wattle of cock)

An smutachán, sulky, pug-nosed person

An struipléidín,  brazen hussy                    léideanach, daring, venturesome

An sotaire bradach, the thieving upstart, 

An struipear, flighty girl, loose woman, fast one         struip, strip, hurry, fast 

Tá  struip siúil faoi, he is travelling fast

 Thóinín ghortach, Cré p. 300 barren, poor, mean little arse

 Thóinín charrach, Cré p. 267, scabby, mangy little arse

 Thóinín chlamach,  mangy, spotty little arse

Caithríona - Ag scilligeadh bréag ata tú, a thóinín charrach! Cré p. 267

Caithríona - Spouting lies you are, you mean little arse!

And, of course, all of these utterances are just  ‘treillis breillis’ (nonsensical talk). But some expressions are useful to know even if you ( good soul that you are) never intend to resort to ‘Gáirmhagadh’, (derision, mockery) , ‘sceanach cainte’ (cutting, slashing talk)  or 'ag caitheamh spíde' in your dealings with native Irish speakers! Bain sult as! Have fun!

Irish House Rules And What A Laughing Belly Means In Irish

Tá a bholg ag gáire leis, (lit.) his belly is laughing at him!  i.e. he has enjoyed his meal. 

Agus eagar ag teacht chun an tí, airím an t-eagar céanna ag teacht ar m’intinn. Fillean Saoirse. P.53

When I set about putting the house in order, I feel the same sense of  order coming about in my mind.

Sometimes it helps to order things in a certain way. For example, I like to collect phrases in Irish centred around a particular topic. So when I’m reading I’m always looking out for interesting or useful colloquial Irish phrases to jot down in my notebooks. The accumulation, grouping and writing down of these sentences under specific headings helps me memorize related vocabulary. Each time you add a new word or phrase to your Irish notebook topic you also tend to read what you have written previously and the constant repetitive reading of your notes is a further boost to memory and recall of vocabulary when speaking. You can also compare and contrast how the words you are tracking change in sound and spelling due to the structure and grammar of the sentence. Tracking vocabulary also makes you more aware of what Irish verbs ( plus their prepositions) are most often used when dealing with a particular topic. See, for example, the use of ‘Gabh anuas’ and ‘Gabh amach’ in the following collection of sentences taken from one of my notebooks.

I have arranged these random sentences into a psuedo-story just to add a touch of humour agus tá mo theanga go daingne i mo chúlbhéal agam. (i.e. In English, tongue in cheek; in Irish , tongue in back of mouth)

Note the words in bold for useful vocabulary and grammar points. If you want to do some grammar detective work (agus ná bí maol (blank) ina bhun, keep your wits about you when you’re doing it.) you will need to work with the following grammatical tools:

Eclipse  

Lenition  

Preposition  

Case  

Gender

Number

Preposition + article 

Possessive adjectives

Can you explain what is happening to the shape and sounds of these words in bold? *

Tá anáil breá ag an teach, the house is very airy, spacious

Chónaigh said ar feadh bliana ann, they have been living there for a year, they lived there for a year

D’airigh Máire mar a bheadh súile ag faire tríd an bhfuinneog uirthi.

Chuir Máire a ceann amach ar an fhuinneog.

And then she walked…

i dtreo an dorais

Chuir sí a cloigeann amach as taobh thiar de chuirtín a bhí mar chlúdach do dhoras.

“Gabh anuas agus lig me isteach, come down and let me in.”

Ar éigean a bhí sí taobh istigh den doras nuair a bhris an gol uirthi. She was hardly in the door when she burst into tears.

Rinne bean an tí  leithscéal dó. The woman (of the house/housewife) apologised to him.

“Gabh agam, excuse me

“Táimid ar an bpláta beag.”  “We are in dire straits, short rations.”

“Is mó a mhála ná a sholáthar, (lit.) his bag is bigger than his provisions, i.e. he is never able to make ends meet.”

Bhuel, sin go díreach fáth mo chuairte. “Well, that’s exactly the reason for my visit.”

The fear an tí interjects…

“Cuir an boc sin ina chonaí,”   “put that fellow in his place,”

“Gabh amach as mo theach, get out of my house.”

But…

Rug sé isteach sa tseomra dá ainneoin é sin. Nonetheless, he entered the room. 

The husband considered this intrusion as…

Coiscéim coiligh ar charn aoiligh, an arrogant step

(Lit. The step of a cock onto a dung heap)- a nice colourful Irish image for dealing with  impudence.

Déannann bean an tí  leithscéal dó arís. The woman  apologises to him again.

And says…

“Na cuir suim na sea ann.”  “Pay no heed to him.”

Déan do chuairt,  Do pay a visit. Stay awhile

The visitor asks her…

Déir tú go bhfuair tú na buidéil leigheasanna istigh faoina dheasc. You say you found the medicine bottles in his desk.

She explains..

Tá said timpeall an tí in áit éigin

 The visitor looks…

Ar an tolg

But… 

Tá siad ina gcarn ar an urlár. They are in a heap on the foor.

(Note use of possessive adjective in the structure ‘ina gcarn’ ‘in their heap’)**

In fact…

Tá siad ina gcarn i lar an urláir They are in a heap in the middle of the foor.

Her husband orders her to…

“Cuir bail ar an phraiseach sin,” tidy up that mess

But she is indifferent to his demands and proceeds to read aloud an excerpt from a short story by Máirtín Ó Cadhain

An Strainséara 

"Tá do bhricfasta réidh anois,” adúirt si leis an bhFear Óg.

  Bhí an stól tarraingithe leis an mbord ag Micil cheana féin. Maol ar  bhilleoig an bhoird a leag si ubh Mhicil, ach chuir si ceann an Fhir Óig in uibheagán le hais a chupán tae.

Ba chupán a thug si dó - cupán agus sásar. Muigín a bhí ag a fear.   Cois Caoláire p. 141

“Your breakfast is ready now,” she said to the Young Man.

Micheal had already drawn his stool up to the table. She placed Michael’s egg unceremoniously on the leaf of the table, but she put the Young Man’s egg in an eggcup beside his cup of tea. She gave him a cup - a cup and a saucer. Her husband got a mug.

After hearing this excerpt the visitor finds his belly doing strange things…

Tá a bholg ag gáire leis, (lit.) his belly is laughing at him!  i.e. he has enjoyed his meal. 

And that’s because…

In aimsire a choda a rugadh é, (Lit.) He was born at meal-time) , he always shows up at meal-time

  

The visitor then suggests…

Seo libh go maidin é, let’s make a night of it.

and proceeds to read her a passage from An tOileánach p.43

Bhí Tomás Maol istigh, an iníon agus an mac, líon an tí; iad taréis bia a bheith caite acu; bia an tráthnóna a bhíodh mar ainm ar an mbia sin, agus bia na maidine ar an mbia ar maidin, mar ná bíodh ar siúl san am ud ach dhá bhia sa ló.

Bald Tomás was at home along with members of his household, namely, his daughter and son.  They had just eaten a meal - the ‘evening meal’ as it used to be called while the food in the morning was called the ‘morning meal’ because at that time people usually only had two meals a day.

Shuigh sí ansin ag fanacht go foighneach ag amharc amach an fhuinneog, ag fanacht ar a fear céile teacht chun an bhaile.

Then she sits waiting patiently looking out the window, waiting on her husband to come home.

Síleann sí go feiceann sí carr a fir chéile ag tarraingt aníos ascaill an tí.

She thinks she sees her husband’s car coming up the lane to the house.

The man gets to the front door but…

Ní aontaíonn an eochair leis an nglas. The key does not match the lock.

Luckily…

Shocraigh Siobhán an t-aláram ti agus chuir glas ar an teach.  Siobhán set the house alarm and locked up the house.

She shouts at the poor fellow.

Nach maol atá do cheann ort! What a dunce/ blockhead/dim-wit you are!

The confused man returns to his car…

Bhí an carr páirceáilte i loc an tí. The car was parked in the driveway of the house. ( Note: The definite article ‘the’ is repeated twice in the English structure but in Irish it is used only once and placed in between the two words ‘loc an tí’)

Cúlann sé amach as an loc go mall. He slowly backs out of the driveway.

And sighs…

“Gan mé sa bhaile!”  “How I wish I were at home!”

Notes on text

Eclipse:   ag an⟷ teach vs. tríd an⟷ bhfuinneog, both dative case but no eclipse or lenition  on ‘teach’ because of ‘dot’ rule.

Lenition: Preposition + article 

 You can use lenition ‘ar an fhuinneog’ or eclipse ‘leis an mbord’, ‘sa tseomra’  for dative case.

Preposition:   i dtreo,  but ‘i lar’, no lenition or eclipse because ‘L’ belongs to the special group of consonants that make up the word ‘LoNeR’.  Also ‘ar maidin’;  ‘ar’ does not usually lenite following consonant in set phrases, e.g ‘ar feadh’

Case: bean an tí , genitive case, once again no lenition of ‘tí’.

Gender: an t-aláram ti, masculine vowels are eclipsed by ’t’ in nominitive case.

Possessive adjectives: mo chuairte,   ina gcarn,  note eclipse is used to indicate plural objects here, no lenition on ‘fear’ indicates female possession of things;  i.e  her husband, a fear céile. But note ‘a lamh’ could mean ‘his hand’ or ‘her hand’ because ‘l’ is never lenited. Context must show whether the hand is male or female.

How gender and number can affect verbs:

e.g. Tá an doras (masc.) á oscailt, the door (is being) opened  (no eclipse)

       Tá an fhuinneog (fem.) á hoscailt, the window (is being) opened    (eclipse with ‘h’)

       Chuala sí doirse an gháraiste (masc. gen. plural) á n-oscailt.  (eclipse with ‘n’) 

        She heard the doors (being) open(ed)    

These are passive sentence structures where the doer of the action is not identified.

* See blog ‘The Gender Issue’ dealing with eclipse and lenition.

**Translating Possessive Adjective Structures

Tá siad ina gcarn ar an urlár. They are in a heap on the foor.

The use of a possessive adjective as in the structure ‘ina gcarn’ ‘in their heap’ is a unique Irish way of expressing a particular state a person or object is in.

A couple of lines from the Irish rebel song Róisín Dubh will serve to illustrate this usage:

e.g. Beidh an fharraige ina tuilte dearga is an spéir ina fuil

       Beidh an saol ina chogadh craorac de dhroim na gcnoc

                                                                       from Cas Amhrán 

Suggested translation:

The seas will run red and the sky will turn crimson

And all over the hillsides a bloody war will rage

Notice that I have used the verbs  ‘run’, ‘turn’, ‘rage’ in the English translation though these verbs do not occur in the Irish .  The reason for that is because you cannot literally translate this possessive adjective structure 'ina' as it exists in Irish. Translating in a word-for-word fashion produces outlandish non-English sentences with awkward syntax problems as you can see from the following attempt at rendering perfectly correct Irish syntax into non-standard English:  

The sea will be in its flood of red and the sky in its blood

The world will be in its crimson/blood-red war on the back of the hills

Unfortunately, translation from Irish to English is awash with  examples of bad translations like the above that have demanded little from the translator other than a knowledge of headwords found in a dictionary. There is nothing outlandish in structure or vocabulary in the original Irish lyrics of the song and the translator’s task should be to find a creative solution that conveys the meaning and images of the original in an appropriate English style. If you want novel Irish translations try Google translate!

Here is a recent example of bad translation I found when searching YouTube for a recording of Róisín Dubh  

Sinead O`Connor

http://youtu.be/0YmmAQjCvQ0

Lyrics As Gaeilge.....A Róisín ná bíodh brón ort fé'r éirigh dhuit:
Tá na bráithre 'teacht thar sáile 's iad ag triall ar muir,

Lyrics in English......Little Rose, be not sad for all that hath behapped thee:
The friars are coming across the sea, they march on the main.

The words "that hath behapped thee" is neither English nor an appropriate rendition of the normal Irish usage in the song lyric. It is an attempt to make 'poetic' what is just normal Irish language in the original text and as such is a disservice to the original lyric.  Translating 'na bráithre' as 'the friars' ignores the most  common meaning i.e.'the brothers'. 'Bráithre'  also has the connotation of 'comrades' or in a political/war  song like Róisín Dubh it could mean 'brothers-in-arms' . The phrase 's iad ag triall ar muir' means simply 'they are traveling by sea'.  Sacrificing sense for nonsensical  alliteration 'march on the main' is inexcusable from a professional translator's point of view. What is the 'main' and where is there such a place as the 'main'? Ah well...what's in a word!

Suggested translation:

My Róisin don't be sad about your plight

Our comrades are on their way 

they've set sail across the sea...

More useful phrases.

Tá siorradh fuar isteach ar an doras, there’s a cold draught coming in the door

     (cold blast)

Tagaigí  chuig bhur gcuid go féiltiúil, come to your meals punctually.

An bord a leagan, to lay the table

An bord a thógail, to clear the table

Rud saor in aisce/Free Stuff

Type in any of these Irish Phrases on the free app at www.abair.ie and hear how a maschine posing as a ‘cainteoir ó dhúchas’ (native speaker) might utter the above ‘cúpla focal’. 

You can also download the recording of the phrases entered for repeated listenings

on your computer or mobile.