Eanach Dhúin
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Eleanor McEvoy is one of Ireland's most accomplished contemporary singer/songwriters. McEvoy composed the song Only A Woman's Heart, title track of A Woman's Heart, the best-selling Irish album in Irish history. This is her musical interpretation of Eanach Dhúin by Antoine Ó Raifteiri.
Antoine Ó Raifteiri (also Antoine Ó Reachtabhra, English: Anthony Raftery) (1784 - 1835) was an Irish language poet who is often called the last of the wandering bards.
A native of Kiltimagh, County Mayo, Ó Raifteiri was blinded by smallpox as a child. He lived by playing his fiddle and performing his songs and poems in the mansions of the Anglo-Irish gentry. His work draws on the forms and idiom of Irish poetry, and although it is conventionally regarded as marking the end of the literary tradition, Ó Raifteiri and his fellow poets did not see themselves in this way. None of his poems were written down during the poet's lifetime, but they were collected from those he taught them to by Douglas Hyde, Lady Gregory and others, who later published them. Raftery was lithe and spare in build and not very tall but he was very strong and considered a good wrestler. He always wore a long frieze coat and corduroy breeches.Ó Raifteiri is buried at Rahasane, near Craughwell, County Galway.
Ó Raifteiri's most enduring poems include Eanach Dhuin and Cill Aodain which are still learned by Irish schoolchildren.
Má fhaighimse sláinte is fada bheidh trácht
Ar an méid a bádh as Eanach Dhúin.
'S mo thrua 'márach gach athair 's máthair
Bean is páiste 'tá á sileadh súl!
A Rí na nGrást a cheap neamh is párthas,
Nar bheag an tábhacht dúinn beirt no triúr,
Ach lá chomh breá leis gan gaoth ná báisteach
Lán a bháid acu scuab ar shiúl.
Nár mhór an t-íonadh ós comhair na ndaoine
Á bhfeicáil sínte ar chúl a gcinn,
Screadadh 'gus caoineadh a scanródh daoine,
Gruaig á cíoradh 's an chreach á roinnt.
Bhí buachaillí óg ann tíocht an fhómhair,
Á síneadh chrochar, is a dtabhairt go cill.
'S gurb é gléas a bpósta a bhí dá dtoramh
'S a Rí na Glóire nár mhór an feall.
English Translation
If my health is spared I'll be long relating
Of that boat that sailed out of Anach Cuain.
And the keening after of mother and father
And child by the harbour, the mournful croon!
King of Graces, who died to save us,
T'were a small affair but for one or two,
But a boat-load bravely in calm day sailing
Without storm or rain to be swept to doom.
What wild despair was on all the faces
To see them there in the light of day,
In every place there was lamentation,
And tearing of hair as the wreck was shared.
And boys there lying when crops were ripening,
From the strength of life they were borne to clay
In their wedding clothes for their wake they robed them
O King of Glory, man's hope is in vain.
Comments (9)
What a cool backstory and poem--- I am sending this to my mom who is part Irish and is obsessed with James Joyce (and has written several books about him)...glad you posted this, and happy St. Patrick's Day!
Mom--here's to you and all things Irish! (Except bad Irish people)
Yeah Mom!
So, what's wiath the avatar? Have we won some sort of prize?
LOL.........I guess I "won" a birthday card at work. Ernie (cat) said she wanted her privacy again.
Hey Jags! Happy Birthday! and congrats on winning the card. Wow, quite a coincident, you won a card and it was actually your B'day? Go figure.
Crazy world, isn't it? :-)
Haha, yes! And thank you!
How wonderful to have a mother who's written books about James Joyce. She must be fun to talk to.
I enjoyed McEvoy's voice sing a melody for Raifteiri's piece. He must have been like a traveling historian. Then to hear the pianist replicate her melody reminded me of a 60 Minutes piece I once saw about an idiot savant that could listen to a recording of a long piano piece he'd never heard before, and then play it back in its entirety note-for-note.
I think I saw that, too!---Or it could have been on another show but about the same guy.
Hey, if you are interested in James Joyce, look up Mary Lowe-Evans (mom)---there are several JJ books, and one she JUST completed!
I'll be on the lookout for her.
Great write up and a very relaxing song :-)